All fear is fallen awe of Hashem -
The root fears of native intelligence stem from
fear of abandonment (desire for love)
and
fear of annihilation (sense of being honored, valued and respected)
When Adom ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, mankind was sent out of paradise (abandoned) and made mortal (annihilated.) Because all of mankind comes from Adom these fears are imprinted upon the soul of every person, embedded in the light that gives us life.
Because we are in bodies with senses that take in perceptions of time and space, we project these instinctive fears upon our circumstances. We are built as a spiritual being in a physical body in order to give us the opportunity to develop esteem based on consciousness of the Creator and effort to emulate Him. We are here to reconstitute the original consciousness that Adom had, that all there is in the world is the Creator so that we can use our physical existence to express the Creator's 13 attributes of mercy in our speech and deeds in time and space, making the Creator visible to the whole world. By saying the words that the Creator is One, we ask the Creator to bring the light that is concealed in the natural negativity of our constricted feelings and thoughts to be released and re-joined with the Creator. We yearn only to be a vessel to reflect the Creator's 13 attributes of mercy into time and space as revealed good. |
We ask that the potency of the shell of the negative covering constricting the light disintegrate and instead nourish our ability to reflect revealed good into time and space. We yearn to move to full consciousness that pleasure is only possible from learning Torah, praying fervently to the Creator, and opening a passageway through the natural desires and yearnings for honor for the Creator's 13 attributes of mercy to be reflected by our speech and deeds. With our physical being we yearn to use our free will so that we submit ourselves willingly to be under the control of the mind of the Creator, experiencing the pleasure inherent in reflecting the Creator into time and space.
When we have this awe of how the Creator has made the world, with love in our hearts for the Creator, we are neither abandoned for His Love is constant nor are we able to be annihilated because our souls, if not our body, are eternally connected. This gives us the inner calm to feel the pleasure of connection regardless of externalities, the most famous example of which is Rabbi Akiva who died in martyrdom with the words the Creator is One without feeling the tremendous physical pain of the torture and burning of his flesh. |