And so we come back now to our question. At the great moment, the moment when Avraham Avinu reached the pinnacle of love of Hashem – sacrificing all of his love for Yitzchok on the altar of love of Hashem – Hakadosh Baruch Hu said, “Now I know, you fear Elokim.” What fear?! It was all love!
No! It was all fear, all awareness, because that’s what Avraham spent his life busy with – he saw Hashem more and more every day and so he had more and more to love every day. And therefore when that great moment came, that great test of sacrificing everything before the love of Hashem, Avraham passed the test with flying colors because he had a heartful of yirah, of awareness. And Hashem said, “Now I know that you’re so aware of Me, I’m so real to you, that you were able to completely fall in love with Me and put your love for Me before anything else.”
