{"id":269,"date":"2014-10-26T05:22:45","date_gmt":"2014-10-26T13:52:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/derechhashem.wordpress.com\/?p=269"},"modified":"2014-10-26T05:22:45","modified_gmt":"2014-10-26T13:52:45","slug":"derech-hashem-147","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/derechhashem\/2014\/10\/26\/derech-hashem-147\/","title":{"rendered":"Derech Hashem 1:4:7"},"content":{"rendered":"

The class can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

1:4:7<\/p>\n

There are two sorts of activities over-all [1]: the ones you do because God Himself rules that you must, which encompasses all of His mitzvahs; and the ones you do for one personal reason or another, which are the things you do for your own material benefit [2].<\/p>\n

As we\u2019d already explained, you engage in the mitzvahs in order to follow G-d\u2019s charges and fulfill His will. You do that, incidentally, on two levels at the same time when you fulfill a mitzvah: first, by doing the specific thing He asked you to do just then [3]; and secondly, by perfecting yourself in the process in the way that only that mitzvah can enable you to [4] as G-d wants you to so as to benefit from His benevolence [5].<\/p>\n

When it comes to the sorts of things you do for personal reasons, you\u2019d need to be sure that they accord with G-d\u2019s will and don\u2019t involve anything forbidden. And they should be motivated by the need to maintain your health and well-being rather than to just satisfy your urges. You\u2019d also do best to intend to serve G-d well and energetically when you do them [6].<\/p>\n

Doing that will lead toward personal perfection, it will allow you to achieve the high standing that mitzvah-performance allows for [7], and it will enable you to ennoble all of creation in the process [8] since it will have been used to serve G-d [9].<\/p>\n

Footnotes:<\/p>\n

[1]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u2026 that we\u2019re to \u201capply \u2026 to this end without ever wavering from it\u201d, as cited at the end of 1:4:6. That\u2019s why sinful<\/em> activities aren\u2019t mentioned here though they comprise a large percentage of our activities as well, sad to say.<\/p>\n

[2]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This is based on the following dilemma: we learned in the previous segment that we were to \u201cconstantly engage with G-d\u201d, \u201cattach ourselves onto Him\u201d, and to \u201capply all of our activities to that end.\u201d\u00a0But the truth be known, we engage in many, many things that seem to have nothing to do with G-d. For while we may in fact do what we can to fulfill His mitzvot and thus draw close to Him, as well as to avoid the sorts of\u00a0 things that would alienate us from Him, much of what we do can best be termed \u201cdiscretionary\u201d or mundane, and seems to have nothing to do with Him. So how can we ever hope to draw close to Him given that fact? Fortunately there\u2019s a way. And it\u2019s based on the metaphysical phenomenon depicted below.<\/p>\n

[3]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 By praying just then, celebrating a particular Holy Day at the time, giving charity to a particular cause being solicited, etc.<\/p>\n

[4]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s to say that my donating to a particular worthy cause just then not only helps the cause and does good in the world, it also helps me on a very deep level and rectifies errors I might have made along the way touching on not being charitable. For in fact, G-d wants both to happen — both the inherent good, and the repair.<\/p>\n

See Da\u2019at<\/em> Tevunot<\/em> 160.<\/p>\n

[5]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 See 1:2:1 above as well as Klallei Pitchei Chochma v\u2019Da\u2019at<\/em> 1.<\/p>\n

But, again, those situations only come up once in a while. So what are we to do the rest of the time to better the world and ourselves? We\u2019re thus told that we can grant the same potency and possibility to nearly all the more ancillary things we occupy ourselves with in the course of the day (\u201cnearly<\/em> all\u201d because what\u2019s about to be said can\u2019t be applied to illegal, immoral, or inconsiderate items or acts).<\/p>\n

[6]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That is, you should have in mind that your engaged in them since no one can do much to draw close to G-d when he or she is ill or debilitated (rather than to simply be in \u201ctip-top shape\u201d). See Messilat<\/em> Yesharim<\/em> Ch\u2019s 9, 13 as well as Shulchan<\/em> Aruch<\/em>, Orach<\/em> Chaim<\/em> 231, Berachot<\/em> 63a, and Pirke<\/em> Avot<\/em> 2:12, and Hilchot<\/em> Dei\u2019ot<\/em> 3:3.<\/p>\n

[7]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 See Messilat Yesharim<\/em> Ch. 26.<\/p>\n

[8] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 See Messilat Yesharim<\/em> Ch. 1.<\/p>\n

So, follow this regimen and even the more mundane sorts of things become infused with a mitzvah-quality that\u2019s nearly on par with more clear-cut mitzvahs! And they become expressions of acquiescence to G-d\u2019s will, and means of perfection. The very food we munch, exercise we do, shoreline we walk, etc. thus serves to fulfill G-d\u2019s will in this world.<\/p>\n

[9]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 See 4:9:2 below.<\/p>\n

(c) 2014 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org<\/a><\/p>\n

———————————————————-<\/p>\n

AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman’s translation of Maimonides’ “Eight Chapters” is available here<\/a> at a discount.<\/p>\n

You can still purchase a copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” here<\/a> at a discount as well.<\/p>\n

Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon “The Path of the Just” and “The Duties of the Heart” (Jason Aronson Publishers).<\/p>\n

Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence<\/a>\u201d and \u201cRamchal<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The class can be found here. 1:4:7 There are two sorts of activities over-all [1]: the ones you do because God Himself rules that you must, which encompasses all of His mitzvahs; and the ones you do for one personal … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,3,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jewish-thought","category-kabbalah","category-ramchal","category-torah"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iqof-4l","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/derechhashem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/derechhashem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/derechhashem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/derechhashem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/derechhashem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/derechhashem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/derechhashem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/derechhashem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/derechhashem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}