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“Now, O Israel, what is Hashem, your G-d asking of you? Merely to fear Hashem your G-d, to follow in all His ways, to love Him and to serve Hashem your G-d wholeheartedly and with your entire being” (Deuteronomy 10:12).
The Talmud (Berachos 33b) asks: Is fear of G-d such a small (easy) matter? The concern of the Talmud is with the expression “merely,” which seems to imply that fearing G-d is simple attitude to cultivate. The Talmud answers its own question and says: Yes, for Moses it was a small matter.
The question here is obvious. Fear of Hashem might have been a simple matter for Moses, but how could he tell the entire nation that it was a small matter?
Many approaches have been offered to understand this passage. The Arizal notes that the Hebrew expression “for Moses” can be also rendered as “in the presence of Moses”. For people living in the presence of someone like Moses, benefiting from his example and inspiration, fear of Hashem can be achieved without great difficulty.
By Rabbi Michael Skobac
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