282. Be Mindful with a Minor Commandment as with a Major One – 2
November 25, 1972
“Be mindful with a minor Mitzva [commandment] as with a major one, for you do not know the reward given for Mitzvot [commandments]” (Avot, Chapter 2). It is also written, “And it shall come to pass that if you surely listen.”
We should understand this, since they said, “Be as slaves serving the teacher not in order to receive reward” (Avot, Chapter 1).
Yet, “reward” is regarded as “money,” for anyone who works, it is only for a reward, and each one is rewarded according to his labor. Concerning the money that is paid for the labor, with money, one can buy all the pleasures that he wants, as it is said, that with money one can enter the King’s innermost quarters.
This means that the reward is a general thing with which we can obtain all the pleasures. In spirituality, it is known what is written in The Zohar and in the words of the ARI, that all the pleasures that we find in corporeality are but a tiny light extending from spirituality, but the bulk of the pleasure is revealed in Torah and Mitzvot.
And the reason we feel concealment in Torah and Mitzvot is due to the power of the Tzimtzum [restriction], which is to correct the bread of shame, which is equivalence of form, as in “As He is merciful, so you are merciful.”
Hence, when one is rewarded and comes to a degree where all his actions are for the sake of the Creator, to the extent that he can receive in order to bestow, to that extent he emerges from the Tzimtzum and achieves revelation, as in “He stood and concealed it for the righteous in the future.”
It follows that all the darkness that we feel in spirituality extends from the evil within us, which is to receive in order to receive. Our sages said about this, “I have created the evil inclination; I have created the Torah as a spice” (Kidushin 30b), meaning that through the Torah we obtain the power to subdue the receiver in us so he can work in order to bestow.
In other words, all we want to receive from the Torah and Mitzvot is the power to subdue the evil. This is the only reward that we hope to receive from Torah and Mitzvot, since once we obtain the power to bestow, we will be able to obtain all the delight and pleasure that the Creator has prepared for us.
It therefore follows that they said, “Be mindful with a minor Mitzva as with a major one, for you do not know the reward given for Mitzvot, meaning which Mitzva is more effective for obtaining the power to bestow, which is called in the wisdom of Kabbalah by the name Ohr Hozer [Reflected Light].
This is why the verse says, “And it shall come to pass that if you surely listen,” meaning that by observing the Torah we will be able to obtain the power to bestow contentment upon the Creator. At that time, we will have abundance, since more than the calf wants to suckle, the cow wants to nurse, and all that we are missing is the aim to bestow, since there was a restriction on receiving in order to receive.
Hence, the main reward that one should receive for observing Torah and Mitzvot is only to emerge from the bad called “receiver” and enter a state of where he only gives contentment to the Creator.