In this week's parsha
the Torah juxtaposes the mitzvah of sending away the mother bird before taking
her offspring and the mitzvah to erect a fence on one's roof upon building a
new house. Rashi explains that if one performs the mitzvah of shiluach hakein
he will merit building a house and performing the mitzvah of erecting a fence,
because "one mitzvah leads to another mitzvah" (Avos 4, 2). Rashi
continues that it is for this very reason that the Torah places the
prohibitions of planting a field with kelayim (a forbidden mixture of seeds)
and the prohibition of wearing clothing that contain shatnez (a mixture of wool
and linen), directly after the above mentioned mitzvos. Performance of the
original mitzvos will lead to the acquisition of a field, a vineyard and
clothing, and to the performance of the related mitzvos.
Rav Wolbe (Shiurei Chumash) points out that we generally understand that the
Mishna, "One mitzvah leads to another mitzvah" is limited to the
actual performance of the mitzvah: The performance of one mitzvah will give me
Heavenly assistance to perform another mitzvah. If I say bircas hamazon I will
be able to learn in the morning and thereafter conduct my business honestly and
daven mincha with a minyan, etc. However, from Rashi it is clear, that
additionally, through the performance of one mitzvah Hashem creates and
allocates the resources needed to enable the performance of mitzvos that
hitherto had been entirely out of the person's ballpark. If he does shiluach
hakein Hashem will give him the ability to build a house enabling him to
perform the mitzvah of building a fence. Truly amazing!
There is yet another aspect of this adage of Chazal. Rav Wolbe (Alei Shur vol.
II pg. 40) quotes Rav Dessler who explains that every person has a
"nekudas habechira." In other words, there are many mitzvos and good
deeds that a person does without choosing at all; rather, they are dictated by
the way he was brought up or his intrinsic nature. Likewise, there are many
aveiros that he does without even realizing that they are wrong; it is simply
the way he was educated. His nekudas habechira (point of choice based on his
free will) is merely at one specific location: where what he knows to be true
clashes with what he imagines is true (but deep down really knows it's not).
However, one's nekudas
habechira is not stagnant. "One mitzvah leads to another mitzvah" is
in effect a conditioning agent whereby a person becomes acclimated to the
performance of a mitzvah to the point that the yetzer hara no longer tries to
persuade him to disregard that mitzvah because it has ceased to be a challenge
to overcome the temptation. He can now move up to the next rung on the
spiritual ladder and conquer even bigger and better territories as he advances
in his avodas Hashem.
If a
mitzvah presents itself, grab the opportunity. Besides the infinite reward of
that specific mitzvah, it also has the ability to improve one's spiritual and
physical standing. Moreover, in the month of Elul each mitzvah is precious and
might be the one to tip the scales!
No comments:
Post a Comment