[Avodah] Mitzvat Aseh

[Micha Berger]

On Sat, Oct 20, 2007 at 11:46:30PM -0400, T613K at aol.com wrote:
: It does say in Pirkei Avos "lefum tza'ara agra" but it also says,
: "Ratzah Hakadosh Baruch Hu lezakos es Yisrael, lefichach hirbah lahem
: Torah umitzvos."

And the high point of RH leining is "baasher hu sham", din is based on
where you are at the time, not your history. Thus the measure of sechar is
the progress made. More work means more real change, and thus more sechar.

BTW, the Rambam takes "lezakos es Yisrael" very different than you did.
Yeish mi shekoneh olamo besha'ah achas -- because in one moment he
could get the yedi'as H' which was necessary to get his olam haba. And
therefore, the value of Hashem giving us many mitzvos is that it means
many many opportunities to do mitzvos shelo lishmah so that we can once
have that moment where everything clicks, and ba lishmah. And that one
time, he has an epiphany and koneh olamo.

Most of us have a more dei'os (middos) oriented view of the goal than the
Rambam's intellectualized yedi'ah. But tht basic notion would still fit --
many mitzvos means many opportunities to have that moment of change. Not
necessarily that every opportunity is used in a sekhar-gaining way.

"Ba'asher hu sham" would seem to imply that if it's possible to act
without any change in the self, one could do a mitzvah and not get
sekhar for it. I am not sure it /is/ possible.

: It seems that we do get reward even for those mitzvos that we find easy to 
: keep, including lo sa'asei's we wouldn't commit even if they were permitted. 

To the extent they move the bechirah point, even decisions that aren't in
the center of its spotlight can therefore yeild sechar. Again, assuming
that some amount of change is inevitable in every situation you face.

: It would be a strange thing to say that a person who was such a great  
: tzaddik, and who had so perfected himself, that he virtually no longer
: had a yetzer hara, would not get much of a reward in Olam Haba.

As already noted his moment of greatness didn't have much history, and
didn't last very long. (Perhaps part of the RH message is to reassure
people who wonder about how they do teshuvah for the same things every
year, and what's the value of it all?) At least this time around. Who
knows? Maybe it was the seed for the teshuvah Yishmael did at the end
of his life.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             One who kills his inclination is as though he
micha at aishdas.org        brought an offering. But to bring an offering,
http://www.aishdas.org   you must know where to slaughter and what
Fax: (270) 514-1507      parts to offer.        - R' Simcha Zissel Ziv