Sukkos
At the end of Koheles it states את האלוקים ירא ואת מצותיו שמור כי זה כל האדם fear Hashem and guard His mitzvos since this is the entire person. HaRav Elchanan Wasserman explains that people may think that fearing Hashem is an important attribute in a person, one who has this attribute is a better person and one who does not fear Hashem is on a lower level. This is not so as the passuk states כי זה כל האדם, fear of Hashem is the essence of a person. Without fearing Hashem one does not have the level of a person, rather he is similar to the level of a living being, like the animals. A person is calculated according to his fear of Hashem, the greater the fear, the greater the person is, and the less the fear, the smaller the person is.
The passuk in Tehillim states נורא אלוקים ממקדשך. The Metzudos David explains, because of the Shechina which rests in the Mikdash and the wonders which go out from there, people fear Hashem. The Gemara brings that in Yerushalayim they would set up teachers to teach young children as it statesכי מציון תצא תורה . Tosfos brings: people would see great kedushah and the Kohanim doing the avodah, which would bring to more yiras shamayim and learning Torah. This is as the Sifrei brings on the passuk למען תלמד ליראה את ה’: Ma’aser sheni is so special because a person would stay in Yerushalayim until he finished eating his ma’aser shanei and he would experience everyone being involved with מלאכת שמים and avodah, and he too would grow in his avodas Hashem.
Many miracles happened in the Bais Hamikdash: a women never had a miscarriage because of the smell of the holy meat, the holy meat never spoiled, a fly was never spotted in the butcher place, the rain never extinguished the fire from the wood on the mizbeiyach, the wind never moved the pillar of smoke, many many people stood in a small area and yet bowed down with room, no one ever said it is tight for me to sleep over night in Yerushalayim, pottery vessels or pieces were absorbed in the ground, and the red string turned white to publicly show Hashem atoned on Yom Kipper, plus more.
The passuk in Parshas V’zos Habracha states עמים הר יקראו which Rashi explains: non-Jewish merchants came to Zevulun’s land and stood by the border for business. They said, “Once we bothered to come this far lets go all the way to Yerushalayim and see the Fear of the Jews and what the nation does.” They came and saw all of Yisrael serving one G-d, and eating one food. The non-Jews are different, they each have different idolatry, and they eat different foods. They then said, “There is no more fitting nation than this,” and they converted to Judaism. This is as the passuk continues שם יזבחו זבחי צדק, there they will slaughter the sacrifices of converts. The non-Jewish merchants recognized Hashem’s existence by seeing everyone serving and davening to One Source, and seeing the miracles that happened in the Bais HaMikdash.
May Hashem rebuild the Bais HaMikdash and bring back the yiras Hashem we are missing.
