There is a refrain that recurs throughout the construction of the Mishkan: All of the components of the Tabernacle were made “as G-d Commanded Moshe.” This expression appears no less than 18 times in the four Torah sections dealing with the construction of the Mishkan! The Torah certainly goes out of its way to make a point of this by interspersing this statement so often in the narration, rather than merely mentioning it one time at the end of Parshas Pekudei. Why?
Rav Baruch Mordechai Ezrachi offers an explanation (in his Sefer Birkas Mordechai): There is a lot to be said for people who do a Mitzvah exactly as they are told — no more and no less. The nature of people is that they do not like to do exactly as they are told. People like to feel a degree of independence. They like to feel that they can at least bring some degree of personal creativity to whatever job they are doing. The natural inclination is to think “True, the Almighty told us to do it ‘this way’, but wouldn’t it be nicer if we did it just a little bit better.”
Of course, no one would consider doing less than the Ribono shel Olam Commanded. Heaven forbid! On the contrary, the tendency would be to do more. There is an inclination to say: “I want to show my own individuality. Maybe we can do it a little different.” Doing a mitzvah in a “no more, no less” fashion testifies that the person is not doing it for his own sake, but simply as a servant following the orders of his Master.
This is akin to the Talmudic idea that “greater is one who is commanded and does than one who is not commanded and does.” [Bava Kama 38a] There is greater challenge — and hence greater reward — for a man to recite Krias Shema daily in its proper time than for a woman to do so. This is somewhat counter-intuitive. We might have thought that a “volunteer” gets extra credit and is to be rewarded more than a person who is merely fulfilling an obligation. However, it is a higher spiritual level when a person does something not because he wants to, not because he enjoys doing so, not because he feels it is a form of self-expression, but because “I told you so!” That is a higher spiritual level.
People do not like to be “told you so!” That goes against a person’s ego. That is why people like to be self-employed. “I don’t want to take orders. I want to be my own boss.” To be an employee and have to do it always the way the boss says is difficult. In Judaism, we are all employees. There is One Boss. He says something and that is the way it is. This is why the Torah repeats 18 times: “As G-d commanded Moshe.”
It is written in Parshas Be’Ha’Aloscha (in connection with the mitzvah of lighting the Menorah in the Mishkan), “And Aharon did so.” [Bamidbar 8:3] Rashi there makes the simple comment: “This teaches the praise of Aharon — that he did not deviate.” Anyone who ever picked up a pen to write a commentary on Chumash deals with this Rashi. What does it mean “This teaches that he did not deviate”?
The premise of the question is “Of course you do what G-d Commands you. What’s the big deal?” But in fact it IS a big deal. It is in fact a great complement when the Torah testifies that Aharon did exactly like he was told regarding the lighting of the Menorah, day in day out, and year in year out. He never tried to stamp the lighting with his personality. He never tried to improve the process. He always did exactly as he was told, no more and no less.
