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