5. Yirat Hashem: Fearing to Lose the Closeness to God

On the 22nd yahrzeit of Reb Shlomo Carlebach zt”l, Rav Shlomo Katz learns a breathtaking teaching of Rav Kook — through the heart of Reb Shlomo — about what true fear of Heaven really means.

Yirah, says the Baal Shem Tov, isn’t the fear of punishment. It’s the trembling awareness that I could lose the closeness, that I could dim the light between me and Hashem. Rav Shlomo shows how Reb Shlomo and Rav Kook both lived with that kind of awe — not born of guilt or distance, but of love too deep to risk losing.

From the exile of self-doubt to the redemptive Torah of Eretz Yisrael, Rav Shlomo teaches how real Yirat Hashem begins when we stop being afraid of the light and start believing we’re worthy to receive it.