Here we will try
to explain the importance of spiritual fulfillment
and its effect on the personality of the person. We
will also see why it is not enough to feel this spiritual
fulfillment in the heart, but that it must be accompanied
by concrete actions. All this has been explained in
the Torah and was understood as something quite simple
by many intellectuals of the world like Soren Kirkgegard
(In “A Jew, Who Is He, What Is He?” page
22) who said, “A belief that does not bring
in its wake a fulfillment and a change, is a false
one. The greatest believer, who carries out his belief
with great enthusiasm, but shows no sign of a complete
change in his life, proves, that his belief is simply
part of his own imagination only. The influence and
recognition of a belief in a human being depends on
the way he carries out his day-to-day life and manages
to control and suppress his desires, stops doing evil
and the actions he takes to carry this out.”
The Greek philosophers,
who did not believe in a practical religion, but believed
that human perfection comes from recognizing and studying
the truth, believed just the same, that a person must
carry out and fulfill deeds that will teach him spiritual
perfection: In his Kuzari, Rabbi Yehudah HaLevi thus
wrote (Article A, Part A), “Question the truth
on the things that you want to know, in order that
your brain will act and not be acted upon. Talk to
the point and in truthful ways. This will help you
seek and recognize the truth. Then you will demand
less, be more humble and accumulate good character
traits.”
The Philosophers
did not recognize G-d or the need to act accordingly
to His commandments. This is why they believed that
human beings can act in any way suitable that will
bring them to fulfillment of their goals. Just the
same, these intellectuals understood that it was not
enough for a person to acquire education and knowledge
but that he also needed to carry out and act in order
that his internal thinking could turn into a reality.
Which is exactly what the Torah tells us to do, and
we will bring several examples here.
A) The Precepts (Mitzvot)
connected to prayers: These precepts connected to
prayers are done through the heart as it is stated
in Ta’anit 2, “and to labor for him with
all your heart - what is the service of the heart
- it is prayer.” Anyway it is not enough to
pray from the heart. If a person has some thoughts
that stem from his heart but does not utter them out
with his lips, then he has not fulfilled the commandment
as it is stated in Berachot 20, “Thoughts are
not the same as an utterance.”
B) Repentance: The
precepts connected to repentance are also connected
to the heart: Nevertheless, “A person repenting
must confess with his lips and say the things he has
decided to do through his heart” (Rambam, Repentance,
Chapter 2).
C) Ownership: When
ownership is transferred, the most important part
in this transaction is that the heart of the original
owner agrees with the action. But all of this is not
legal until some sort of action of transference is
performed, such as that a deed or legal paper is signed
or changes hands or the transfer of ownership done
according to the Jewish religion (Halacha). (This
includes an action that is accepted as a valid transference
of ownership by the society where the transaction
is taking place.)
D) Marriage: It is
not enough for both sides to agree to marry and to
live like a family, but a legal action must also be
carried out for this agreement to be formal.
From all these examples
we have learned that it is not enough for the heart
to tell you to do something. There is a need for some
sort of act to carry out the will of the heart. For
this reason the spiritual fulfillment of a person
is not reached unless it is carried out by action.
The belief and the desire to be close to G-d and the
actions connected with it must be according to the
precepts (Mitzvot) that G-d set forth in the Torah.
There is, sometimes,
an opposite process when outside actions (not connected
or controlled by the person) influence the internal
thinking of a person as it is explained in Sefer Ha’Chinuch
#16, explaining why the Torah has so many practical
precepts: “Know that a person is governed by
his actions. His heart and all his thoughts are influenced
by the actions that he is involved in be they good
or bad. Even a wicked man whose thoughts are concentrated
on doing evil all day, if he should start studying
Torah and Mitzvot, even if he is not doing it for
G-d’s sake, he will start acting in a more positive
manner. This is because the heart goes after the deeds.
The same holds true, concerning a righteous man, who
lives according to the Torah and Mitzvot, but makes
a living from dubious transactions, or if for example
he is forced by the King or ruler to deal in such
dubious matters, he will eventually be transformed
from a righteous man to an evil one.”
In Mesilat Yesharim
(Chapter 7), it is written, “Alacrity is brought
about by the internal enthusiasm of a person. But
even if a person lacks this internal enthusiasm, he
should carry out and do things in an accelerated pace,
this will bring about an internal enthusiasm. Since
external actions brings about internal ones.”
The Rambam, in his
commentary to Avot, wrote, “If a person wants
to give a certain sum to charity, it is worth while
to divide this charity into several portions and give
it away at different intervals and not at one time.
By doing so, it has a greater effect on a person,
than if he would give the sum to charity all at one
time. This, despite the fact that to do so, he must
invest more time and effort.”
The actions of a
person should be done in order to fulfill and carry
out the commandments of the Creator, since these are
the things that elevate a person. As the Maharal from
Prague wrote in Tiferet Yisrael (Chapter 4), “The
commandments of the Torah can be likened to a rope
by which a person is drawn out of a hole or a well.
The person is drawn from the lowest levels to the
higher levels of the world. The more he does, the
more he removes materialism from himself, which then
enables him to sit next to the Lord of Hosts.”
The meaning of the
word Mitzvot in Hebrew comes from the root Unite and
Bind. Which means that each mitzvah unites and binds
the person to the Creator of the world (see Tanya).
In Tanna d’bei Eliyahu (Chapter 9), it is written,
“I testify before heaven and earth, Israel and
the nations, man and woman between a servant and handmaiden,
the Holy Spirit rests upon a person according to his
actions.”
The fulfillment of
the commandments in the Torah, builds the character
of a person and raises him to a level of perfection,
as it is written in Deuteronomy 4:14, “And the
Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes
and ordinances, that la’asot’chem –
you might do them...” [The Hebrew la’asot’chem
also means “you shall make (i.e. build) yourselves.”]
This word la’asotchem
teaches us here that the statutes and ordinances,
the mitzvot, build the person and it does not merely
mean that a person must carry them out. This is why
it is written in this special way. A person must be
trained on the way he should build his life, starting
from early childhood. Anyone reading books dealing
with child- care can find many examples there. But
even as a grownup, a person must take a grip on himself,
if he wants to “discover himself” and
find a real meaning to his life. The Noahide laws
are logical. Many intelligent people will even agree
that there is a need for them, but this is not enough.
We must remember that we must carry out these ordinances
and statutes because we have been ordered to do so
by the Creator. They were given to Adam and Noah,
then again given on Mount Sinai. Part of the Torah
was given on Mount Sinai to the Israelites as a Holy
Nation of Priests (Exodus 19:2). The remaining part
is intended for entire human race. The Rambam wrote
in Melachim-Kings (8:11),
Every person that
agrees to carry out the seven Mitzvot of the children
of Noah, and does this in a careful manner, is a righteous
gentile, and has part in the world to come, meaning
that he carries this out because G-d has ordered him
to do so in the Torah, through Moses. But if these
seven mitzvot are carried out just because he feels
a necessity to do so, then he is not a Ger Toshav
(Gentile resident in Israel), nor a righteous gentile
or one of its sages.
The Mitzvot have
been handed down to us in the form of an order, but
just the same we are called to accept them gladly.
A person must accept the Mitzvot with love. Despite
the hardships in fulfilling them, he must carry them
out. This also has an educational value.
A person who wants
to do only those good deeds that he feels impelled
to perform without being ordered to do so stresses
his own importance. He thinks that he is the focus
of everything. But when a person decides to carry
out the Mitzvot because he has been ordered to by
G-d, then he feels the importance of the G-d that
orders. It is only then that he manages to discover
and find all his hidden powers in order to carry out
these mitzvot. These hidden powers cannot be tapped
to their utmost if a person carries out the mitzvot
simply because he has the sudden urge or mood to do
so. This decision is strengthened even more when the
person announces it before three learned and wise
Jews. This acts transforms the person into a Ger Toshav.
Even today, when, since all of the Israelites have
not yet returned to their land, the laws concerning
a Ger Toshav are not applicable – in reference
to the special privileges which would otherwise apply
to a non-Jew who has made such a declaration –
such a declaration made before three observant Jews
nevertheless still enhances the status of the non-Jew.
This declaration
should include: belief in the principles of the existence
of the one true G-d, who is everlasting, the Creator
of all things, guides all of his creations, is the
One that gave the Torah on Sinai for all of humanity,
and oversees all the actions of the human beings to
reward and punish them for their deeds. Then the person
should state that he is willing to fulfill the seven
mitzvot that were given to Noah. (There are those
who believe that this announcement should be accompanied
by submersing in a pool of at least 660 liters of
water, like the sea, spring or a man-made pool built
in the earth. However we know of no basis for this
view.)
