פרשת תצוה

In this week’s Parsha, Hashem commands the Jewish people to light the Menorah with pure olive oil so that there may always be light emanating from the sanctuary of the Mishkan. The Midrash Tanchuma records an interesting dialogue between Hashem and the Jewish people in which the Jews question Hashem by saying, “You are the source of all light in this world. Why do you need our light?” Hashem responds that although it is true that He is the source of all light, it is specifically the action of lighting which the Jewish people do which is more dear to Him then all the Heavenly lights that He created. The Midrash Rabah adds to this understanding by saying that Hashem “desires” so to speak the actions of His creations. It is clear from these two Midrashim in what esteem Hashem holds our service of Him, regardless of whether that service is needed or not. But one point that I believe is important to bring out from these words of Chazal, are that it is not our thoughts, or our good intentions which Hashem seems to desire, but rather our actions which we perform in order to serve Him seem to be what He covets. It seems that this point requires some explanation. Generally, there is a principle in Chazal that states that all Hashem asks of us is to give Him our hearts. This concept is readily understandable as anything else we can offer Him doesn’t have much meaning. All He really wants to see is our point of free will which is in our hearts. This being the case, why do these Midrashim seem to be focused on the physical service that we perform, seeming to preclude the service of our hearts?

R’ Eliyahu Dessler deals with this issue and he explains that although it is certainly true that Hashem’s primary desire is the service of our hearts, the only way to make it to the point where our hearts are subjugated to His service are by physical actions. Many people can talk the talk, but only those who can walk the walk are able to dedicate themselves enough to reach the level of service that Hashem is interested in. R’ Dessler goes on to explain that very often, a person has a thought to improve his level of Torah observance, but almost equally often, if he doesn’t act on that thought, it shortly fades away into the recess of his consciousness, like so many other things he thought to do but never got around to. Whereas when a person takes physical action, he turns that thought into a reality, and solidifies it so that it takes root in his heart. Furthermore, if he doesn’t act on it, there is a danger that it will actually hurt him as the Mishnah in Avos (3) says, “Anyone whose wisdom is greater than his actions, his wisdom will not remain. This can be compared to a tree, whose branches are greater that its roots. A strong wind will come and blow the tree right out of the ground”. Similarly, a person who has a lot of good thoughts, but does not act on them, is in very real danger of being uprooted.

Truthfully, the purpose of this entire world is to take action. The Gemorah in Eruvin (22) says, “Today you will perform them, and tomorrow you will receive reward for them”. Meaning, in this world, our entire purpose is to perform the Mitzvos, and only in the next world will we be capable of receiving the reward for the toil that we have done. But our focus in this world should only be the labor which is incumbent upon us, because this world is a place of action. Similarly, the Midrash in Parshas Tazria records a famous discussion between the wicked Turnus Rufus and R’ Akiva. Turnus Rufus asked R’ Akiva, “If Hashem wants human beings to circumcise themselves, why did He give them a foreskin”? R’ Akiva responded that it was specifically because Hashem wanted to teach us that it is up to us to refine ourselves by the actions we do in this world. Hashem could have easily made the world perfect, but He wants us to perfect the world by the good deeds that we perform through the keeping of the Torah!

Indeed, R’ Akiva was a major proponent of the importance of action. The Gemorah in Berachos (61b) teaches us that when R’ Akiva was being tortured to death by the wicked Romans, his students found him saying the Krias Shema. They asked him, “Rebbi, are you so dedicated to Hashem’s service that even now, you are involved with it?” He responded, “My whole life I recited the Shema, and in that Shema, it says that a person has to give up his life for the love of Hashem. But I was always concerned that I may never get to perform this Mitzvah. Should I not be happy that I now get to do something that I looked forward to my whole life?” One could ask a powerful Kushya on this Gemora. The commandment in the Shema is to be willing to give one’s life for Hashem. This being the case, what was R’ Akiva so anxious about? He did perform this commandment every day. Why was he so concerned that he may not get to perform it? Based on what we have said, this is not difficult at all. R’ Akiva knew what the commandment was, but he also knew that one cannot compare the method of Mitzvah performance which exists in one’s heart, to the method which involves an actual performance of an action. Although R’ Akiva did the “theoretical” performance every day, he was always apprehensive that he may never get a chance to do that particular Mitzvah in an active way. When he finally did get that chance, he expressed tremendous happiness because he understood the value of positive actions in this world as opposed to positive thoughts.

Perhaps we could conclude with the poignant words of R’ Gedalya Sher. R’ Gedalya used to say that it is interesting to note that the importance of action was taught to us specifically in the Mitzvah of lighting the Menorah. He asks what is unique about the Menorah? R’ Gedalya explains that the only oil fit for the Menorah was absolutely pure olive oil. Any unrefined oil which made its way into the oil would render the entire batch unfit. This is coming to teach us that although it is certainly true that Hashem desires our actions, as we explained in all of the above quoted Chazal, the real actions which Hashem desires the most are the pure ones. The actions we do which have no admixtures of impurities in them are what the Midrash is truly referring to. When a person does a good deed, but he has motivations which are partially impure, for example to receive honor, or for his own personal benefit, his actions are not as effective as they would have been if he could manage to rid himself of those impurities.However,when a person reaches the level in which he performs his commandments with absolutely pure intentions to serve his creator, there is no telling how powerful such an action can be in the grand scheme of this world!

<“p class=”center”>May Hashem bless us to serve him always with absolute purity!