Rav Naftali Tzvi Horowitz, known as the Roptshitzer Rebbe, gives a chassidishe insight into a pasuk in this week’s parsha. The Torah uses the following pasuk to introduce the halacha of the bull brought as a sin offering by the Sanhedrin as an atonement for an erroneous ruling: “And if the whole congregation of Israel shall err, the thing being hidden from the eyes of the assembly, and do any of the things which the L-rd has commanded not to be done, and are guilty.” (Vayikra 4:13)
The wording of this pasuk seems strange: “...and do any of the things which the L-rd has commanded not to be done...” does not refer to doing an aveira (sin). It says they did something which Hashem commanded not to be done. The Roptshitzer Rebbe says that the pasuk is not referring to doing aveiros. It is referring to not doing mitzvos correctly. “One of the mitzvos of Hashem ... asher lo sei’asena” – that you are not doing it the way you are supposed to be doing it! That in itself is sinful.
We are now on the threshold of Pesach. Leil haSeder is a night full of mitzvos. There is no other night like it throughout the year. There are so many mitzvos, both D’Oraisa (Biblical) and D’Rabanan (Rabbinic). Matzah and Sipur Yetzias Mitzraim are D’Oraisa; Maror and Arba Kosos are D’Rabanan. A person needs to be careful not only to perform the mitzvos, but to perform the mitzvos correctly – with the proper intentions, meticulousness, and enthusiasm that this once-a-year situation merits.
The Roptshitzer Rebbe quotes a story involving two chassidim of the Baal Shem Tov. They were talking with each other:
One chossid said, “Oy, what will be with me? After 120 years, I will approach the Kisei haKavod and I will need to give an accounting on all the aveiros that I did during my lifetime.” The other chossid answered back: “I am not worried about my aveiros. When the Ribono shel Olam will call me on the carpet and ask me why I did this and that aveira, I will explain that I had this lust and that lust and I could not control myself. However, I am really worried about the mitzvos that I did. I am worried that perhaps I did not do them properly. What is my excuse for that?
We may have lapses and fall down spiritually by transgressing certain prohibitions. That may be understandable. But once we are already doing a mitzvah – do it correctly! That was his worry: “hamitzvos asher lo sei’asena” – the mitzvos that he was not performing correctly.
