Parsha Pearls
כָּל־הַמִּצְוָּה אֲשֶׁר אָָּֽנֹכִּי מְצַוְךָ הַיּוֹם תִּשְמְרון לַָֽעֲשׂוֹת...
The entire mitzva that I am commanding you today, you shall guard to do... (Devorim 8:1)
Why instead of saying כל־המצוות, the Torah in this verse says כל־המצוה?
Based on the Zohar, the Nesivos Shalom explains that the Torah is teaching us here that every mitzva needs “כל” - i.e., it needs to be fulfilled בשלמות (in a complete way). And the Nesivos Shalom explains that just as during the creation of a man, he was not complete until he had both the body and the soul, so too, a mitzva is not complete until it has both the body and the soul. Namely, each mitzva needs to have the גוף (the body) - the action itself, and the נשמה (the soul) - the love and awe in the person’s heart who performs that mitzva.
