A student once asked me, “what happens if you don’t do Mitzvot?” I thought about the question for a moment and replied, “If we don’t do Mitzvot, we miss out on the opportunity to practice Judaism.” Suddenly, another student blurted out, “Forever?!” I smiled and said, “No, only until the next time you have an opportunity to do a Mitzvah.”
I think of Mitzvot as the opportunity to do Judaism. Mitzvot are opportunities to learn, grow, and have a fulfilling connection with God, our world and Judaism. There are Mitzvot I do and find deeply meaningful such as prayer, study, and raising a family. There are Mitzvot that have piqued my interest like Tefilin and Kashrut. There are, of course, Mitzvot that I do not do, yet. I find that celebrating the Judaism we already do combined with an open minded willingness to try new Jewish practices helps me to celebrate Jewish points of connection and lift up moments within Jewish practice that capture the soul’s attention. This way of understanding Mitzvot allows me to have a relationship with what is expected of me as a Jewish person and a Jewish leader, while also understanding that Jewish practice is about progress.
I believe that Mitzvot are the product of the conversation between God and the Jewish people; a reflection of the Jewish people’s national ethics and spirit. At the core of Mitzvot is our hope that we can make a difference in the world through a holy partnership with God. By being in partnership with God, we recognize our internal yearning to behave in a godly way, which is to say do the things we hope God would do for the world. We hope that God would sustain life through love, support the fallen, heal the sick, free the captive and keep faith with those who sleep in the dust, but we need not wait an instant to begin doing these things ourselves. What an opportunity to be given a prescription for godliness that is within our reach like the attainment of knowledge, asking for and delivering forgiveness, and offering redemption to our fellow. Through Mitzvot we have the impetus to heal, we can address iniquity, and strive toward righteousness for ourselves and for our community.
The great sage Hillel the Elder famously said that the entirety of Torah is such: “What is hateful to you, do not do unto your neighbor…the rest is commentary, now go and study.” This, I believe, is the way we should approach Mitzvot: being mindful of the essence of Judaism while placing the onus of responsibility on the individual to study and deepen one’s relationship with the texts, traditions and practices.
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