By Rabbi Dovid Sapirman, Dean, Ani Maamin Foundation
The Ani Maamin Foundation was formed to strengthen the emunah of klal Yisroel. Without clarity in emunah, Yiddishkeit is merely a culture or a lifestyle. With it, it is the absolute truth. When we understand that every mitzvah has a reason and was given to us for our benefit, the service of Hashem can be transformed from a burden to a privilege and a pleasure.
Every good cook knows that a dish needs all the right spices in just the right amounts. Leave them out, and the food will be tasteless and unappetizing. The nutritional value might be the same, but it just won’t taste good. In lashon hakodesh, the word ta’am can be translated as “reason” or as “taste.” Each mitzvah is there to provide spiritual nutrition, and each one has its own special purpose. A mitzvah may help us internalize a concept, refine our middos, bring us closer to Hashem, or prepare our neshama for Olam Haba. We receive that “nutrition” as long as we perform the act, but without an appreciation of the ideas behind it, we are missing out on the flavor.
When our chachamim offer reasons for mitzvos, it is not to say that this or that is the entire rationale for it. Since every one of the 613 commandments comes from Hakadosh Baruch Hu, a mitzvah is infinitely deep, just as Hashem Himself is infinite. A reason gives us the flavor. It increases our awareness.
The Rambam writes, “It is proper for a person to contemplate the laws of the Holy Torah and to understand them as much he can. Something for which he knows no reason should still not be light in his eyes...Let him not think about [the Torah] as he thinks about mundane things. Come and see how strict the Torah is with me’ilah—sticks and stones, dust and ashes, become holy merely because Hashem’s name is called upon them with words. Whoever treats them as non-holy has committed the sin of me’ilah. Even if he did so unintentionally, he still needs atonement. How much more so with the actual mitzvos! Let one not rebel against them just because he does not know the reason!”
The message of the Rambam is clear: mitzvos do have reasons. We should try to understand them to the best of our ability. If we don’t, however, that should not diminish our reverence and respect for the mitzvos, because each one is the word of Hashem.
To be continued.
