living in fear

In the Tur, on the halachot of Tefillin (32:20?), he mentions that if a Sofer writes tefillin without proper kavanah, then someone will use those tefillin, blessing upon them every day for their whole lives, each time taking HaShem's name in vain (chas v'shalom) without knowing it, and never be properly keeping the mitzwah of Tefillin. What follows is that all of this multitude of sins (chas v'shalom) will be on the Sofer's head. Therefore, he concludes, a Sofer needs to have tremendous Yirat Shamayim, fear of heaven.

From this I learn that we need to be aware of our actions that take on a life of their own. Not everything we do vanishes after it is done. Some things carry on, persist, infect and affect others.

Still, we have no choice but to continue to act and do and live. These necesitates two things, great Yirat Shamayim, and also great Emunah. We have to have faith in HaShem always that He is guiding us to good things, and protecting us from what we can't and don't know. (Similar to what the Nodah b'Yehudah said in the story about him found on A Simple Jew)

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