A Perfect Mitzvah

23 Shevat 5782

“May his prayer be considered a sin.” (Tehillim 109:7)

One might ask: How can prayer be considered a sin? The Holy Baal Shem Tov answers this questions in Tzava’at Harivash Section 74:

“There are two types of wicked people. The first is altogether wicked … the second is blinded by the yetzer hara and imagines himself to be altogether righteous, and also appears as such to people … The difference between the two is as follows: The altogether wicked one can be cured from his affliction when he is bestirred by a sense of teshuvah and returns to G-d with all his heart … For the second one, however, there is no remedy. His eyes are bedaubed from seeing the Creator, blessed be He, His greatness, and how to worship Him. He is righteous in his own eyes; thus how can he return with teshuvah? … More Serious yet, ‘he devises evil on his bed’ (Tehillim 36:5). That is [the yetzer hara] deceives him further as follows: when he falls [ill and is] bedridden, he prays to G-d to heal his illness by virtue of the Torah and mitzvos he had performed. He does not realize that this only recalls his sins.”

“This is the meaning of the verse, ‘And G-d commanded us [to fulfill] all these statutes in order to fear G-d.’” (Lessons in Tanya, Likutei Amarim, end of Chapter 23)

This is why we must guard ourselves so carefully from pride originating from a mitzvah. The mitzvos were given to glorify His name in our own eyes and in the eyes of those around us, in order to attain a sense of fear and awe for Hashem. This fear and awe, this feeling of nothingness before Hashem and reduction of our egos, will lead to a yet higher level of awe in the service of G-d. Nevertheless, the Alter Rebbe cautions us, “even he whose mind cannot bear such a fear, nor even a minute part of it, because the root and source of his soul derives from an inferior level—the lower gradations of the ten sefirot of the World of Asiyah—even he should not be deterred from the actual performance of the Torah and the mitzvos for want of this fear.” The mitzvos are still the main focus, and nobody should hold off from doing them because he has yet to reach a perfect level of service.

“When you lend money to My people, to the poor person [who is] with you, you shall not behave toward him as a lender; you shall not impose interest upon him.” (Shemos 22:24)

When you have reached an elevated level and you are in the position to give, either spiritually or materially, do not use it to lord over others. Every time “im” (“if” or “when”) is mentioned in the Torah, it implies something optional, except in three instances, where the spoken action is obligatory; this is one of them. It is obligatory to lend money to another, even if the borrower owns possessions that he can theoretically sell. Further yet, you may not charge interest, and even if the Jew is unable to pay back the loan, you may not pressure or embarrass him.

This stems from the fact that in truth, both your money and the other Jew’s belongs to Hashem. In order to justify your possession over your money, you must fulfill certain requirements that Hashem set forth in the Torah, lending to Jews being one of them. Midrash Tanchuma states, “The Holy One, blessed is He, said: ‘How much you owe Me! Yet your soul ascends to Me every night, gives an account, is found guilty before Me, and I return it to you. You too, take and return, take and return.’”

This is the humility we must cultivate before others and in our service before the Creator of the world. Only then will our mitzvos count as total merits for us. Nevertheless there are many stages and gradations between being yotzer and perfect, all of which we should fulfill to the best of our ability on our way to getting there.