The Ultimate Reward
The Beis Aharon teaches us on the pasuk of תלכו בחוקותי אם, if you will follow My decrees, that the first level in performing a mitzvah is as a decree—without understanding or comprehending why we’re doing it. Later, we experience the reward, the מצוה מצוה שכר, the reward of a mitzvah is a mitzvah itself, grasping and connecting with the meaning of the mitzvah. If a person obeys the חוק, the decree, he will be rewarded by connecting with the deeper meaning of the avodah.
And we must know that it is purely a reward for our performing the mitzvos with commitment—and that it is only the Ribbono shel Olam Who can illuminate these revelations for us: דעת לאדם חונן אתה. Nothing we will do can really bring us the light—it is purely a gift from Above.
One of the strongest ways we can bring about this illumination is through sustained connection—אתקטרנא קטירא בחד, remaining tethered with one sustained knot. Sometimes, a person regrets that he isn’t meriting that דעת—but the Ribbono shel Olam says to him, “You were right there... it was decided in דרקיעא מתיבתא that I will illuminate for you... but then you left just at the moment that I began speaking to you....”
A Unique Dilemma in Our Generation
This is like a person who struggles to focus. He hears the beginning of the story, but he can’t focus through the second part... and he never gets to the end. Similarly, a Yid may grab a davening here, the yahrzeit of a tzaddik there... here he cries with emotion... but it’s never a continued and sustained focus on the Ribbono shel Olam.
Come, we tell him. Sit down. Let us speak with yishuv hadaas and peace of mind. This is the only way you will merit illumination.
In our generation, this issue has become exponentially worse. Technology has robbed us of all focus, and people don’t grasp how much spiritual pleasure they lose out on due to this deficit of yishuv hada’as. A person’s mind is constantly jumping from one thought to the next. We don’t appreciate how much Sitra Achara lies in this—because it robs us of deveikus in Hashem! When it comes to learning a blatt Gemara, if a person has a good head, he can perhaps get away with being in and out of focus... but when it comes to deveikus, there are no shortcuts! One must be completely present, for a sustained period.
Hashem Will Illuminate
Everyone must work on this focus according to his ability, and we must remember that the Ribbono shel Olam assists those who try. He seeks to be a מסייע, to assist us. But we must open the door. Take one part of the day and designate it for sustained connection with Hashem. As a person’s world becomes illuminated, he will be able to expand on this. It’s not enough to open this sefer and that sefer, and to hear a vort here and there, as nice as these things are. The mitzvah of בו ולדבקה is the actual purpose of our existence in This World!
