EXOD221 Some Jewish thinkers emphasize the general sense of yirat ha-El as sufficient reason for avoiding sin. "Antigonus of Sokho used to say: Be like servants who serve the master without the expectation of receiving a reward, and let the fear of God simply bring you to it" (Avot 1.3). R. Joshua b. Levi interprets the verse from Psalms: "Happy is the one who fears God" (112:1) to mean: "Happy is the one who can master the evil inclination, as God meant for human beings to do" (Avodah Zara 19a). As the fourteenth century Rabbi of Toledo, Judah Asheri said: Keep your mind open to whatever may remind you of the fear of Heaven; be not diverted by the jibes of others, nor by your own lust" (Hebrew Ethical Wills). The fifteenth century philosopher Joseph Albo tells us:"The fear of God is not the fear of a human being. If one is in fear of an [earthly] ruler, one is in constant terror and dread, which shortens one's life, whereas fearing God prolongs it.... He who is happy is he who fears God, for this fear does not lead to timidity but to might, so that his seed shall be mighty on earth" (Sefer Haikkarim [The book of principles]). In the sixteenth century Italian sage Ovadia Sforno teachers: "Anyone who knows how greatly God ought to be praised will fear God because of this, rather than because of any punishment God may visit on us" (commentary on [this verse], in Mikraot Gedolot).