Now, we will study a teaching from the Rebbe Rav Mendele which will illuminate for us the topics of reward in This World and utilizing matters of This World for avodas Hashem.
The Rebbe addresses the matter of reward for mitzvos, and the well-known question, “How can the Torah promise a reward for fulfilling the mitzvos when we know that ליכא עלמא בהאי מצוה שכר, the reward for mitzvos is not given in This World (Kiddushin 39b). Furthermore, the sefer Avodas HaKodesh answers this question by explaining that indeed, these promises are not rewards; rather they’re a natural fact that one who performs mitzvos will merit these material benefits, a great shefa. This is how the world was created from the start.
Asks the Rebbe Rav Mendele: “How can we refer to this shefa as blessings when they’re in fact worse than mud and filth? For mold and decay come from living things that have ceased to live, leaving behind the undesirable part to rot away. The higher the life of that living being, the more severe the decay will be (proof of this is that remains of living things are far more repulsive than growing things or inanimate objects that decay).
He goes on to explain that ta’avos are the undesirable part of ahavas Hashem. A person has the middah of love for Hashem—which is the greatest attribute in the world—and thus, the waste of that attribute (when we employ it for ta’avos of Olam HaZeh) is more repulsive than anything.
