What makes you happy? Is it a nice cold beer, new clothes, or watching the latest Netflix show?
This week’s Torah portion, seems decidedly less happy than any of those ideas. God gives us a long list of all the terrible consequences that could befall people if they don’t follow His ways. Some of the “curses” listed are so dark and foreboding that the custom has become to read through them quickly and quietly in synagogue, as if speaking them too loudly might cause them to manifest.
How do we avoid all these bad things from coming to light? Well, the Torah interrupts it’s list of ominous warnings to give us a glimpse at something specific that causes these consequences:
…because you did not obey the Lord, your God, to observe His commandments and statutes which He commanded you.
Devarim 28:45
and then it also says:
Because you did not serve the Lord, your God, with happiness and with gladness of heart…
Devarim 28:47
The obvious question is why the Torah seems to list two different reasons: that you didn’t keep the mitzvos and that you didn’t serve God with happiness. So which is it?
The Vilna Gaon explains that the central part of a mitzvah, the part that gives the greatest reward and connection to God is… the happiness you do the mitzvah with. That is, a mitzvah without joy, or joy without mitzvos, are both lacking. Doing a mitzvah is the starting point, but the goal is to be thrilled that God gave us that commandment. That by doing these seemingly small acts, we can forge a relationship with our Father in Heaven. That joy may not be a required part of a mitzvah, but if you miss that part of the mitzvah, you are missing the point.
You don’t have to dance to find joy in your mitzvah, but it doesn’t hurt
So while one could keep the mitzvos begrudgingly one minute and find joy in some mundane activity in the next, the goal, as the Torah is stressing here, is to find your joy within the commandments themselves.
May we all do good every day, not just because we feel we should, but may we feel energized and happy that we get to follow in God’s ways, every day of our lives.
Shabbat Shalom from Rabbi A and JET Ottawa
Do any of these curses apply to those of us who are not Jewish? And are Mitzvahs the 621 laws?
Glad u enjoyed learning about the oldest synagogues. I find these treasures in all sorts of places. Jews get around!!
Yes, the mitzvos (singular mitzvah) are the 613 commandments given in the Torah. There are also 7 primary rabbinic mitzvos. In God’s magnum opus that He gave to humanity, He spends a lot of time speaking about them, so we understand from that that they are pretty important.
The specific blessings and curses spoken out at Mount Grizim and Mount Eval to those who accepted that particular covenant and their descendants. That said, many of the results of keeping mitzvos are not rewards and punishments per se, but rather natural consequences. For instance, there were significantly fewer Jews who died of the Black Plague per capita, which probably had something to do with mitzvos related to ritual washing (something medieval Europeans were loath to do). That was hundreds of years before humanity discovered germs, but of course God knew about germs when He gave the Torah. We may not know every reason for a given mitzvah, but we do know that God designed the world to naturally reward mitzvah observance.
All that to say, even a non-Jew who keeps a mitzvah will see reward for it.