The God of Israel is not a tyrant, God-forbid, but a compassionate Father, who wants to draw His children to Him with love! It's not the remembrance of the day of death, or fear of the punishments of hell that awaken a person's heart to the service of God, blessed be He, but the yearning to cleave in devotion to the Source of all, to the Life of all that lives.

Baal Shem Tov , The Light and Fire of the Baal Shem Tov by Yitzhak Buxbaum