[Avodah] D'rabanan vs. D'oraita

[Michael Makovi]

I said:

> I don't really like the model of mitzvot having intrinsic effects on
> the universe. For example, when I eat treif, or when I put on
> tefillin, I don't really think anything spiritual is happening in the
> universe. Rather, it's that
> 1) It affects yourself - it is educational, whether in your knowledge
> and intellect, or in affecting your behavior (practicing tzedaka will
> make you charitable, etc., as per Sefer haChinuch).
> 2) It shows loyalty to G-d. As Rav Hirsch near the beginning of Sefer
> Bereshit says, our deeds affect the heavens (so to speak) because G-d
> sees what we are doing, and His attitude towards us changes
> accordingly.

However, I realized, I left out a third category:

I should have included:
3) It is stam what G-d wants - For example, G-d wants you to help the
poor, be nice to others, honor the elderly, clean up the environment,
etc. He just stam wants them. Not because they pull any spiritual
strings in the upper worlds to reunify any broken disunity, but
rather, simple because He wants a world where the poor have what to
eat and where all His children get along. He intrinsically just wants
these things in the world.

Now then...

Horeb gives six categories of mitzvot:
1) Toroth - These are totally educational (my first category). They
really don't require any deed, but are rather almost pure hashkafa
and/mussar, such as fearing G-d and being loving and compassionate and
not being greedy.
2) Mishpatim - Justice towards other humans. These fit into my third
(stam He wants) category, and my second (loyalty)
3) Chukim - See mishpatim - chukim are justice to subordinates to
yourself, such as creatures and nature.
4) Mitzvot - See mishpatim - mitzvot are love (not justice), because
G-d has commanded and because it is stam what we ought to do. (Rav
Hirsch says in 19 Letters, "...simply because of the bidding of G-d
and in consideration of our duty as men and Israelites.")
5) Edot - First (education) and second (loyalty) categories. A most
notable eid is Shabbat and Yom Tov, as well as tzitzit and tefillin.
6) Avodah - this is a twist on the second (loyalty), in that it
establishes a direct relationship to Him via prayer; it isn't quite
loyalty, but it is similar. It is also educational for ourselves
(first).

So while Rav Hirsch divides the mitzvot into six groups, I have
divided the reasons BEHIND these six categories, into three different
motivations or rationales.

So to categorize Rav Hirsch six categories according to my three:
1) First
2) Second and Third
3) Second and Third
4) Second and Third
5) First and Second
6) First and Second

It should obvious, however, why we don't have three (stam He wants)
without two (loyalty) - you can do a stam command of His just because
He said so (two - loyalty), without it being something He is
intrinsically pleased with (three - stam He wants), but it is
impossible to have three - stam He wants without two - loyalty.

The only question is, why don't we have a mitzvah with all three categories?

Mikha'el Makovi