Embracing the Sacred Awe: Exploring the Powerful Energy of Yirah Amid Fear

I’m listening to the book, Play Big, by Tara Mohr. It’s been a great book and one section hit me like a ton of bricks today.

Tara describes a book she read by the late Rabbi Alan Lew, where he says they’re a few different words and definitions for fear in Biblical Hebrew. One is Pachad, which means projected for imagined fear. Worries about the future, fear about possible rejection or someone not liking us.

Another is Yirah, which Rabbi Lew describes as “the fear that overcomes us when we suddenly find ourselves in possession of considerably more energy than we are used to or inhabiting a larger space than we are used to.”

It’s like a sacred awe. So beautiful but kinda scares the shit out of us at the same time! Like when we’re thinking about taking a chance, making a change, or believing in ourselves again. Like big butterflies in your stomach.

We’re all very familiar with Pachad and stay in that feeling too much for our own good.

Yirah, gives a word to that feeling I felt when I knew that I wanted, needed, to become a life coach. The feeling when I slowly coming out of the closet. When I stand up for myself in big and small ways. And how I felt when I signed up for a Master Mind group that I knew was gonna rock my world in the best way!

Like shades of a color, fear has different shades and can make me appreciate its complexity.

Now that I have a word for those huge butterflies, yirah, I’m going to lean into them even more to see what lies within the sacred awe.

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