Awe is an elusive feeling. It is hard to define and even harder to cultivate. In their 2003 article “Approaching Awe, a Moral, Spiritual, and Aesthetic Emotion,” psychologists Dacher Keltner and Jonathan Haidt provide an illustrative model for conceptualizing this abstract construct. They describe awe in two ways. The first is as “perceived vastness” and the second as a “need for accommodation.” We feel awe’s vastness when observing a physically expansive space or when in the presence of a holy or impressive person or the Divine. Vastness can manifest intellectually, when we encounter a complex theoretical concept. Awe also generates a “need for accommodation,” forcing us to reconsider our original expectations and understandings of the world. It can challenge our mental structures to expand and adjust to a new stage of enlightenment.
Religious awe plays a crucial role in Deuteronomy. Moses consistently addresses the emotional lives of the Israelites. Laws are not just dry rules but have transformative functions and purposes. One potent example is the second tithe, where the farmer would bring a portion of “grain, new wine, and olive oil,” and the firstborn of the flock and eat them in God’s presence, “in the place He will choose as a dwelling for His Name” (Deut. 14:23). The stated goal of this activity is “to learn to hold the Lord your God in awe, always.” What precisely does awe of the Lord entail, and how does fulfilling the precept of the second tithe instill this state?
Keltner and Haidt’s model of “perceived vastness” and “need for accommodation” provides a framework to help elucidate the various exegetical interpretations. Abarbanel focuses on the awe generated through the experience of being in the presence of God and submitting to His will through the performance of the commandment of the second tithe. One midrash accentuates the intellectual angle, arguing that the precept of the second tithe inspires us to learn Torah, which in turn can engender cognitive and spiritual awe (Sifre 106).
Several medieval French Tosafists emphasize the experiential aspects of the pilgrimage. The visitor will be emotionally transformed by witnessing the Priests and Levites perform their devotional services. They will be intellectually enlightened when seeing the court, the Sanhedrin, as the sages judge and elucidate religious laws. They will be socially elevated, uniting with their fellow brothers and sisters throughout Israel, as Rabbi Jonathan Sacks writes, the gatherings led to “a sense of shared citizenship, common belonging, and collective identity” (“The Second Tithe and Strong Societies,” Covenant & Conversation).
These experiences of spiritual vastness demand a “need to accommodate” and expand a previously limited spiritual consciousness. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch suggests one concrete learning objective of the second tithe. According to Rabbi Hirsch, the pilgrim does not just witness the Priests and the Levites, but he himself becomes in spirit like a Priest and Levite. He is there to enjoy eating the second tithe in “priestly purity and priestly feelings of life… before the presence of God, as being seen by his God, in the neighborhood of his God.” This enables him to “learn that true joy has its roots only in the true awe of God.” After this inspiring encounter, he realizes that every moment of his life, wherever he is located and whatever activity he is engaged in, occurs in the presence of God. He is then able to elevate even the mundane pleasures of eating to a holy and sanctified Godly act.
While the commandment of eating the second tithe in Jerusalem is not fully operative today, its essence helps us appreciate the value of cultivating our own awe of God. By exposing ourselves to elevating religious role-models, expansive Torah concepts, and immersive, experiential spiritual exercises, we can endeavor to experience the vast awe of being in the presence of the Divine.
Character Challenge: Intentionally attempt generating religious awe by nurturing an intimate encounter with the Divine, or by exposing yourself to a natural expanse, an inspiring religious setting, an intellectually complex Torah thought, or a motivating religious role-model.
Quote from Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, zt”l: “When we visit Jerusalem today we see a place of such beauty it takes your breath away. Jerusalem is the place where all the prayers of all the Jews across all the centuries and from all the continents meet and take flight on their way to heaven. It is the place where you feel brushed by the wings of the Shechinah. We have had the privilege to be born in a generation that has seen Jerusalem reunited and rebuilt. We have seen the Jewish people come home” (“We Never Forget Jerusalem,” Acceptance Speech for The Guardian of Zion Award).
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