ארי בין הרחבותA Lion in the Road

ari bein ha-reḥovotIn Gamatria ↗

Fear does not make him lazy; laziness makes him afraid.

What spoils zeal is what feeds laziness. Chief is the love of comfort. One who must eat at leisure and sleep undisturbed will find it hard to rise early for prayer or go out in bad weather for a mitzvah. A person is here to labor, like a day-worker or a soldier who eats in haste and sleeps lightly: 'bread with salt, water by measure.' The second spoiler is fear: cold, heat, illness, wind. Ramchal separates fitting fear from foolish fear: guarding against a known, common danger is God's will; piling guard on guard until Torah stops is folly. The Midrash tells of the lazy man. Your teacher is in town: there is a lion on the road. He is in your house: the door will be locked. Fear does not make him lazy; laziness makes him afraid.

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