We are now in Pesukei Bitachon, Tehilim 115,11 יִרְאֵ֣י יְ֭הֹוָה בִּטְח֣וּ בַיהֹוָ֑ה עֶזְרָ֖ם וּמָגִנָּ֣ם הֽוּא׃ Those that fear Hashem rely on Hashem. He is their help and their shield. What is the connection between those that fear Hashem and those that rely on Him? Rabbenu Bachye in Bamidbar 25,11 tells us it’s known that Fear of Hashem is a stepping stone to Bitachon. We have to start with fear of Hashem, which is the realization that Hashem is here. Fear of Hashem doesn’t mean that you walk around shivering all day. Fear of Hashem means you realize Hashem is here. Rav Wolbe, as well as others, says that יראה Yirah / fear has the same letters as ראה Ra’ah / to see , which means fear of Hashem means you're aware of Hashem and therefore you don’t want to sin because He's watching me . And ultimately, if I'm aware of Hashem and know He's here, then I rely on Him. That's why יִרְאֵ֣י יְ֭הֹוָה בִּטְח֣וּ בַיהֹוָ֑ה those that fear Hashem rely on Hashem. Rabbenu Yonah, in his Igeret HaTashuva , unit 70, says that the more fear of Hashem you have, the stronger your reliance on Hashem becomes, and he quotes our pasuk: יִרְאֵ֣י יְ֭הֹוָה בִּטְח֣וּ בַיהֹוָ֑ה Rabbenu Yonah, in Mishleh 18,10 asks why we single out that Yireh Hashem rely on Hashem, and he says it’s because the reliance of people that fear Hashem is a different level of reliance. Furthermore, the Chatam Sofer points out that the rule is that we always go up in the levels of holiness. The pesukim start off with Yisrael Betach B’Hashem . Yisrael is the base level. Just the fact that he identifies as a Jew is something, as we previously discussed. Then there's the Bet Aharon Bitchu B’Hashem , those are the Kohanim . That's the next level. But the highest level is Yireh Hashem , those that fear Hashem. One of the greats in our Torah is Pinhas, somebody who put his life on the line, someone that had Yirah and Bitachon . Rabbenu Bachye, in Bamidbar 25,11 says that Pinhas was a God-fearing man and also a Bote’ach B’Hashem and his reward for killing Kozbi and Zimri was (Malachi 2,5) בְּרִיתִ֣י ׀ הָיְתָ֣ה אִתּ֗וֹ הַֽחַיִּים֙ וְהַשָּׁל֔וֹם / My covenant was with him- Life and Shalom He got life. He lived forever, and he got peace. These are really connected. Living forever comes from the fact that your body is at peace with itself. His body and soul never separated. Rabbenu Bachye says he got these two rewards, peace and life, because he had the traits of Yirah and Bitachon . What is a greater reward than life and peace? Of course, we want to live but we know that without peace, what is life? We're learning that these two levels, fear of Hashem and reliance on Hashem, give us the two greatest gifts that we can ask for: HaChaim V’HaShalom. And it builds on itself, as we said. The the more fear of Hashem we have, the more reliance on Hashem we have. The Chatam Sofer says in Shemot 18,23 that Yirat Shamayim comes from learning Torah. This point was a bit of a hiddush to me. We talk a lot about relying on Hashem, but there's a process. You need to work on Yirat Shamayim/ Fear of Hashem in general. We learn this from Yosef HaSadik who controlled himself from sinning with his boss's wife. He had Yirat Hashem . He said, I don't want to sin to God . He is also the role model of bitachon/reliance on Hashem, because you can't just jump to relying on Hashem. You rely on Hashem if you're aware of His presence. And if you're aware of His presence, then you also follow His rules and regulations and don't sin, so Bitachon needs Yirat Shamayim. We shouldn’t fool ourselves. We know that bitachon is elusive, so we really have to say to ourselves, If we have real bitachon, it should come with real Yirat Shamayim as well. Have a wonderful day.