In order for a person to have equivalence of form with the Creator, he must try to have fear in everything he does, as it is written (there), “Fear means that he is afraid lest he will diminish in bringing contentment to his Maker.” (Rabash, “What Is, If He Swallows the Bitter Herb, He Will Not Come Out, in the Work?”)

It is impossible to begin any relationship between a person and anyone else without the condition of awe. Awe is what the desire to receive feels as it strives for fulfillment, for life, for pleasure. However, opposite this, it also feels fear.

An unfulfilled desire to receive experiences fear that this state will remain or that it will come to such a state. This is animalistic fear—awe (Ira).

If we acquire a screen over this animalistic awe, which is directed inward toward the desire to receive, then from the desire to receive this awe turns toward the Creator and becomes something else entirely. Instead of thinking about myself and fearing for my own state, I tremble and think about His state. This means that I begin to feel the “suffering of the Shechina.”

Just as the desire to receive is the foundation for developing a system of relationships directed toward bestowal, so too, awe is the foundation for developing a system of relationships directed toward love. There can be no love without awe.

Even in the highest love, there must be awe. What if I could have given one gram more and I did not? And this is not any kind of deficiency on the part of the Creator, nor any natural deficiency on the part of the created being.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/28/26, Rabash, “What Is, If He Swallows the Bitter Herb, He Will Not Come Out, in the Work?”

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