The Rebbe of Kobrin zy”a (quoted in Kisvei RaMam) explains that there are times when a person does not feel enjoyment from his avodas Hashem. No matter how hard he tries, he cannot feel any sweetness or enthusiasm for his avodah. The solution for this problem is to continue serving Hashem without any feelings of hisorerus, and, in the end, one will come to arouse himself and to feel inspired.
This is what Moshe Rabenu told Klal Yisroel. He advised them regarding how to serve Hashem by saying that they “the thing that Hashem commanded, they should do.” And once they serve Hashem simply because He commanded them to do it, “the honor of Hashem will be seen on them”, meaning that they will come to feel the sweetness and joy of serving Him.
One Who Makes Himself Holy, Will be Holy:
In this vein, Sefer Yalkut Hagershoni quotes Rav Hillel of Kalamaya zy”a as explaining a later verse in the Parshah (11:44): “You shall sanctify yourself and be holy.” He notes that the verse seems to be repeating itself by saying: “You shall sanctify yourself and be holy.” He explains as follows:
Chazal say (Pesachim 50B): “A person should always learn Torah and do mitzvos even if it is not done ‘shelo l’shma’, not for its own sake, because shelo l’shma leads to l’shma, learning and doing mitzvos for its own sake.”
We find that when a word is in “the niphal form” (the reflexive form), it indicates when something appears to be one way but is actually another. For example, the pasuk in Mishlei uses this form to describe a person who acts like he is wealthy when he actually has no money and a person who has money but acts like he’s poor. In this pasuk, the word “v’hiskadishtem”, and you shall be holy, is also in the reflexive form. Thus, it refers to someone who pretends to be holy, even though he really has ulterior motives. However, this is also a good thing because even if someone is acting shelo l’shma, it will lead to him serving Hashem l’shma.
Accordingly, the pasuk is saying that if you pretend to be holy by preforming mitzvos and learning Torah, you will end up being genuinely holy.
