By Rabbi Manis Friedman
Mitzvos
Q) Why, when we do a mitzva, we get closer to Hashem?
By way of analogy – A son was asked by his mother to bring her a cup of tea for 50 years, twice a day. After 50 years, the son finds out that his mother doesn’t even drink it – she spills the tea out! He went over to her, and demanded an answer. How could she spill out every cup of tea he brought her?! Her reply was that even though she didn’t even like tea, this was a way he could be connected to her.
Is this a good mother? She’s asking her son to do something she doesn’t even need for him to be connected to her!
The answer is that she’s a horrible mother!
When someone asks you to do things they don’t need, it means they want you to be out of their life. Asking someone to run around the block 5 times shows you don’t need them, or want them near you.
Obedience doesn’t equal closeness. The son would recieve an A+ for listening, but an F for connection…
If you’re important to someone, you want to be as close or closer than the most important thing in their life. For example, close friends share things that are important to them and not necessarily open info.
Mitzvos are Hashem’s Ratzon – an expression of His will. What someone wants is important to them, and so mitzvos are important to Him.
That’s why it says, “schar mitzva, mitzva.” When someone does a mitzva, she or he become one with Hashem, the closest thing to Hashem!
But, aren’t Yiddin the closest thing to Hashem to begin with? This is proved further by the fact that G-d is giving us Mitzvos to be connected with Him – you give something that’s important to someone who’s important….
The nefesh Elokis in us is the part that’s closest to Hashem – it is Hashem. When we do a mitzva, the rest of us gets closer to Hashem, the nefesh habehamas.
We can’t be without Mitzvos, and Mitzvos need us to be actualized, so in truth both Yiddin and Mitzvos are most important to Hashem.
Once we do a Mitzva, and get close to Hashem, we can’t just stop – because we’ll do something stupid afterwards. And if we don’t do something stupid, we’re Tzaddikim – who do Mitzvos either way, bacause it’s their 2nd nature. For example, when a girl is engaged, she’s nice to her chosson – because she wants him to marry her! After their married, she could technically stop being nice… but she doesn’t, because it becomes second nature for her to be nice to her husband.
That’s how it is for us and Tzaddikim, and in Golus and when Moshiach comes. We do Mitzvos to be close with Hashem, and when Moshiach comes we’ll be Tzaddikim – we’ll perform Mitzvos because it’ll be natural for us.
