by Reb Gutman Locks @ the mystique’
What is the worst thing that a Jew could possibly do? What sin is so bad that if a Jew does it (G-d forbid), G-d actually curses that Jew? If the Jew turns from his sin, G-d will take the curse away. But, if that Jew is obstinate, and continues in his horrible sin, then G-d adds another curse to the first one. Again, if the Jew only turns from his sin, the curses will be taken away, but if he is still stubborn and insists on continuing in his wicked way, then G-d will add another curse, and then another, and another. The curses get so bad that this Jew actually eats his own children! The sinner brings upon himself 98 of these horrible curses.
What is this worst of all possible sin? This week’s Torah portion, Ki Savo, lists those awful curses, and it explains that the curses came, “… because you did not serve Hashem, your G-d, amid gladness and goodness of heart, when everything was abundant.”[i]
The Torah says that everything was abundant for him. Things were alright. He was even serving G-d,[ii] but he was not serving G-d with joy. Don’t do this one!
G-d gave us His Torah to relieve our burdens, not to increase them. He loves us and wants us to be happy every day of our lives.
Today, there are thousands upon thousands of “religious” Jews falling into this horrible, and needless, trap. Their mistake is that they are serving G-d for the wrong reasons. They serve Him only because they are commanded to obey Him, only because they have to! They serve Him because Him because it is the tradition. They do the mitzvahs because they believe that they will receive a reward in the Next World if they do them. And yes, all of these reasons are true. We are commanded to serve G-d, and yes we will receive a reward in the Next World. But, these are not to be our reasons for serving G-d.
They serve G-d because they are obligated to serve G-d, not because they love Him, and not because they love His Torah. Don’t do this one!
If you are not happy when you do a mitzvah, you are not doing it right. You have learned only the lowest level of physicality, and you have not even begun to see the glorious spiritual reality that is within each mitzvah. But, just as the physical Torah requires effort to learn, so does the spiritual Torah require effort to learn. Spiritual awareness and the joy it brings does not come automatically when you do a mitzvah. You have to search for it.
For instance, look to see what G-d wants from the mitzvah you are doing. Why does He command us in this specific way? How does that mitzvah change the world? Imagine what happens to a servant when he fulfills the King’s wishes. How does a father feel when the child does what the father asks, and even more so, if the child has to struggle to do what the Father wants? When you answer these types of questions, you begin to experience the joy that comes from serving G-d the way He wants to be served.