Perform mitzvot for their own sake

Torah study

RABBI JUDITH SCHINDLER
Ki Teitzei/Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19

"If ... you chance upon a bird's nest ... with fledglings or eggs and the mother sitting over the fledglings or on the eggs, do not take the mother together with her young. Let the mother go, and take only the young, in order that you may fare well and have a long life." (Deuteronomy 22:6-7)

"When you make a loan of any sort to your neighbor ... (if) he is a needy man, you shall not go to sleep in his pledge; you must return the pledge to him at sundown, that he may sleep in his cloth and bless you; and it will be to your merit before Adonai your God." (Deuteronomy 24:10-13)

In reflecting on the number of reality-based television shows, it appears that people will do almost anything for a reward.

In contrast, Judaism teaches that our actions are not to be driven by the prospect of a prize. But the performance of some mitzvot will produce a reward.

The Torah states that if we come upon a nest holding a mother and her eggs, we must have compassion and send away the mother before taking her brood. Rashi teaches this is an easy commandment because it involves no monetary loss and requires no preparation.

A similar reward is promised earlier in Deuteronomy for one of the most difficult of commandments. If we honor our parents, our reward will also be length of days and prosperity.

The Rabbis warn us against performing commandments on the basis of their possible payback. As Pirkei Avot 2:1 cautions, "Be as careful in the performance of minor commandments as a major commandment, since you do not know the reward for any of the commandments."

We also find in this portion intangible incentives for doing mitzvot. We are told that when someone comes to us for a loan and gives us an essential item as a pledge, we must return it to them at their time of need. If we do so, that impoverished soul will bless us.

Performing mitzvot can bring us a sense of blessing, of healing, and of connection. Ki Teitzei contains more commandments than any other portion, and with it comes the greatest potential for the richest rewards.

A king hired laborers and brought them into his garden without disclosing what he intended to pay for the various kinds of work. ... In the evening the king called each one and asked him, "At which tree have you worked?" He replied, "At this one." Thereupon the king said to him, "The pay for working at it is one golden piece." He then called another and asked him, "At which tree have you worked?" And he replied, "At this one." Whereupon the king said, "The pay for working at it is 200 zuz."

Said the laborers to the king, "You should have informed us from the outset which tree had the greater pay attached to it." The king replied: "Had I done this, how would the whole of my garden have been worked?"

So God did not reveal the reward of the precepts, except of two, the weightiest and the least weighty. The honoring of parents is the very weightiest ... and the sending away of the mother bird is the least weighty. (Devarim Rabbah 6:2)

1. Do you believe that there is a reward from God for fulfilling the mitzvot?
   
   
2. In your opinion, which mitzvot are easy, and which are hard?