Parshat Yitro
January 28th-29th, 2000
Shevat 22, 5760

I remember participating in a discussion group once, when the topic of  piecemeal mitzvah performance came up.  Someone asked whether the "orthodox view" demands an all-or-nothing approach--and anything less is worthless, or at least, hypocritical--or whether there is value in choosing to do even a few mitzvos while neglecting the rest.

It's a long discussion (and the hour is late), but I basically shifted the focus   somewhat--with the help of a parable of the great Chofetz Chayim-and explained that we should view mitzvos as precious jewels scattered at our  feet.  Just because we do not feel able at the present time to spend many  hours assiduously gathering up all the ones in our vicinity, is it then logical to conclude that we should spend NO time at all?  Alternatively, because our sack can't hold hundreds of infinitely precious diamonds, we should give up the opportunity to acquire two or three infinitely precious diamonds?  That would be sheer madness!

I went on to say (with superb eloquence) that we should do every mitzvah  that we can, and rejoice both during and after its performance.  Pat yourself on the back for every "small" STEP in the right direction, so long as your direction is UP-towards a closer relationship with G-d and the Torah. While it's true that the classical Jewish view is, unambiguously, that all the mitzvos are obligatory, and that the Torah--with its 613 commandments, and rabbinic ordinances--is a unity, I was trying to stress that, in practice, a person should simply focus on whatever he can do at the present time, and not get bogged down or discouraged by the thought of what he is not yet observing.  G-d rewards every good deed.  (The masterpiece of Jewish ethics, Chovos HaLevavos, offers a similar religious strategy for the aspiring Torah-observer: fulfill whatever is in your present capability, and beseech G-d sincerely to help you grow to the level of fulfilling--or of wishing to fulfill!--the rest.)
 
However, one sharp man at the discussion was not going to surrender so  easily to my inspirational sermon--however brilliant I might have thought it was!  He challenged me with the following pointed question: "What if I keep  ALL the mitzvos.but I don't believe in G-d!?" 

It was not readily apparent to this man that the question is a contradiction in terms.  How can there be anything called a "mitzvah" (from the Hebrew root, to command) if there is no "mitzaveh (commander)?"  Isn't the very definition of a mitzvah, "an action, utterance or thought commanded by G-d, as recorded in the Torah?"  How else can we define it?

His confusion probably stemmed from the colloquial usage that simply  equates "mitzvah" with any good deed, as in "Do a mitzvah and help the old lady across the street."  Which is a mitzvah, by the way.not because your teacher says it is a nice thing to do, however, but because specifically G-d commanded us to emulate His ways by performing acts of chesed, or kindness.

Without believing in G-d, there is just not much sense in talking about "doing mitzvos."   (I don't remember the man's reaction to this idea.  No   punches were thrown, in any case.)

In any case, this week's parsha deals precisely with this issue.

What's the first of the ten statements famously known as the "Ten
Commandments?" 

"I am Hashem, your G-d, Who took you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery."  (20, 2)  After this introduction, which--it's true--sounds more like a declarative statement than a commandment, G-d goes on to enunciate nine more obvious imperatives: "You shall have no other gods besides me.you shall not take the name of Hashem, your G-d, in vain," etc.

There is much discussion as to whether that first statement is technically one of the 613 biblical commandments, or merely the foundation of the other mitzvos.  Rambam and Ramban, among other great authorities, hold the former position--that the verse constitutes a positive commandment to believe that Hashem is the free-willed and omnipotent Creator of the universe and everything in it, Who displayed His mastery of all natural forces, His involvement in human history and His special Providence over the Jewish people through the miraculous Exodus from Egypt.  It is not a mitzvah that requires action, and it can be fulfilled at all times, wherever you are; it is a mitzvah of the mind and heart.

In a long passage in his commentary on the Torah, the great medieval  biblical commentator and thinker, Avraham ibn Ezra (1089-circa1164), examines the connection between this first commandment and the other nine.  He declares it to be the primary or root mitzvah from which all the other nine--and, indeed, all the other 612!--stem, for ".someone who doesn't believe in his heart in Hashem, has no mitzvah on him (eyn alav mitzvah)."  In other words, there can't be any mitzvah in the true sense without a belief in G-d. 

The Midrash (Mechilta) makes the same basic point in examining the  relationship of the first two commandments:

"[Consider] a parable of an earthly king who entered a country.  His servants said to him, 'Make decrees for them [the inhabitants]!'  He said to  them, 'When they will accept my kingship, I will make decrees for them, for  if they don't accept my kingship, they will not accept my decrees.'  Thus the Holy One, Blessed be He, said to Israel: 'I am Hashem your G-d. [and then added] you shall not have any gods besides Me.'  [As if to say], 'I am the One whose Kingship you accepted in Egypt?'  They said to Him, 'Yes.'  'Then just as you accepted My Kingship, so you should accept My decrees.'" 

The decrees--the mitzvos--were given only with the assumption (or, better, the assurance!) that the Jewish people accepted G-d's kingship.

Let's emphasize one point in conclusion.  Most of the commentators explain that there is much more to this first commandment than just an intellectual "belief" in a "Deity."  After all, the verse doesn't just say, "I am Hashem;" it says, "I am Hashem, your G-d."  In the unmatched words of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, the first commandment is expressing:

"Not the fact that there is a G-d, also not that there is only one G-d, but that this One, unique, true G-d, is to be my G-d, that He created and formed me, placed me where I am, and goes on creating and forming me, keeps me, watches over me, leads me and guides me; not that my connection with Him should be through ten thousand intermediaries as a chance product of a universe which He brought into being eons ago, but that every present breath that I draw and every coming moment of my existence is to be a direct gift of His Almight and Love.in a word, not the knowledge of the existence of G-d, but the acknowledgment of G-d as my G-d, as the exclusive One in Whose hands is the disposal of all my fate, and as the exclusive One guide of all my acts.

It is only with this, only with the acceptance of this truth, that I can lay the foundation of a Jewish life."  (Hirsch, Commentary on the Torah: II,  p. 258)

May Hashem help us to acknowlege Him as our King, and to keep as many mitzvos-that is, pick up as many priceless diamonds--as we possibly can!

Good Shabbos!

Insights Into Genesis
Insights Into Exodus

Rabbi Yosef Edelstein is Director of the the Savannah Kollel and the Savannah Torah Education Project (STEP).
Phone: 912-355-0157;
fax: 912-354-9923; e-mail: Yosef18@aol.com

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