Everything is in the hands of Heaven except for the fear of Heaven, as it states: And now, Israel, what does Hashem, your God, ask of you, but merely to fear Hashem your God. Is fear of Heaven, the, a small matter, as the verse implies? How could that be? Why? R' Chanina said in the name of R' Shimon ben Yochai: The Holy One, Blessed is He, has nothing in his treasure house other than a store of the merit of fear of Heaven, as the verse states: the fear of Hashem, that is His treasure. If the fear of Heaven, is the only achievement that HaShem values sufficiently to store it, it is, of necessity a great matter.
