By Rabbi Joey Haber
The story is told of a man who once approached a Rabbi and asked a question which we have likely all asked ourselves at one point or another, in some form or another.
"Why does Hashem want me to perform mitzvot?" he asked. "He already has angels, who are perfect, pristine creatures. I'm just a human being. I'm very flawed. I make a lot of mistakes. I do a lot of things wrong. What are my mitzvot worth?"
The Rabbi replied by asking this fellow what he did professionally. The man said he was an artist, who drew paintings.
"What's your favorite piece of art that you've produced?" the Rabbi asked.
The artist explained that he painted a beautiful picture of the sunset over the ocean. It's considered an exquisite piece of art, and is worth an exorbitant amount of money.
"What makes it so exquisite? Why is it so highly valued?" the Rabbi wondered.
"Because it's perfect," the artist explained. "It depicts the ocean, the sun and the horizon in a manner that so closely resembles the real thing."
"So, tell me something," the Rabbi continued. "Why doesn't someone just take a good camera to the ocean and take a picture of the sunset? If he wants a perfect picture of the sunset, then surely a picture can provide a far more perfect replica than your painting, as good as it is."
The artist smiled and explained that the whole point of art is to depict the subject as accurately as possible given human limitations. With a camera, there's no challenge, and so there's no achievement in producing a precise replica. The beauty of art lies in the ability to attain near-perfection within the limits of the human being's abilities.
"This is precisely why Hashem wants us to serve Him," the Rabbi said.
The angels' service of G-d is like the camera's depiction of the sunset. It's perfect and unflawed, without any struggle or challenge. Hashem created us flawed human beings so we can be "artists" – so we can create as beautiful a life as we can, with the understanding that we aren't going to be perfect. Religious life is an art, whereby we make ourselves as close to perfect as possible. Of course, we will never be perfect, and we should never expect ourselves to be perfect. We must, however, expect and demand of ourselves that we consistently work to get better.
Reprinted from the Parshat Ki Tavo 5784 email of Rabbi David Bibi’s Shabbat Shalom from Cyberspace.
