Opinion & Comment
Happiness With Mitzvos; Happiness With Hashem

A Literal Approach

Look. Today I give you a brochoh and a kloloh.

The blessing is: listen to the mitzvos of Hashem your G-d, which I order you to fulfill today.

The kloloh is if you don't listen to the mitzvos of Hashem, your G-d.

(Devorim 11:26-8)

The Chok commentary responds to the above verses with a direct simplicity and explains them thus: "Listening is the real brochoh" (so that he reads the words: The blessing is in listening to or observing the mitzvos). "Not listening is the real kloloh" (so that he reads the words: The kloloh is in not listening to or observing the mitzvos). "And even if you live a life of peace in this world, all the same you are cursed because in the final analysis you are dead, and in the next world you will have to account for all your deeds."

In other words, the observance of mitzvos is in itself a blessing; and the nonobservance is in itself a kloloh because the life of the one who does not observe mitzvos is a non-life, and it makes no difference if it was a calm and comfortable life; and second, since the person did not fulfill mitzvos he will be punished in the next world.

It is inviting to expand on this concept in terms of the technologically advanced third millennium.

Man's Basic Interest

Undoubtedly what a man seeks, above all, is happiness. With it he feels life is worthwhile, and without it he wonders why he was born.

True pleasure is unfortunately known only to the few. It is the pleasure of making life in this material world spiritual. The most exquisite pleasure is to be had from the study of Torah. This pleasure will not be had if a person regards Torah-study as a duty. But if he identifies with Torah and sees that life is the scholarly affair which Torah makes of it, then he will find Torah a source of increasing joy. The man who gives a few hours of his day to Torah study in the right spirit will not only be happy from this during all or most of the day, but will also find that things work out far more and the setbacks count far less.

On lower levels, one can gain the pleasure of performing mitzvos with exactitude, doing chesed and so on.

Dubious Pleasures of the non-Torah Life

The pleasures of the non-Torah life -- indulging physical pleasure, ego trips like power and money -- are low. They do not give higher satisfaction. They do not give feelings of closeness to G-d. The pleasure has something shabby about it. After physical pleasure, for example, is over, a person feels his inner being has been assaulted.

Spiritual pleasure is nearly always accessible. Physical pleasure is not. A friend recently invested a few thousand dollars in a Spanish holiday. On his first night in the hotel, his wife was bitten on the nose by a poisonous flea and the rest of the holiday was spent with expensive doctors and medicines.

Also the more you indulge in a base pleasure, the less pleasure it gives.

The difficulties in obtaining low pleasure can break a person, leaving him to feel that life is worthless. Alternatively, he may commence a frenzied search for what he lacks and neglect his career, waste money, and even turn to crime.

Jewish legend tells the story of the king who banned the consumption of intoxicating wine. A man defied the decree, was caught and brought before a tribunal headed by the king himself. "Why did you defy the law?" the king asked.

The crafty offender replied: "It seems to me the king does not really know what the wine I drank is. If the king were to taste it, he would understand why I could not help but drink it."

"Really?" asked the king ever desirous of meting out true justice.

"Yes," said the man. "And I should like to prove my case by asking the king to knock back a goblet."

"I agree," replied the monarch.

The man produced a bottle of wine with a 96 percent alcohol content. And the king asked for his goblet, which was a deep cup. As he passed on the bottle, the man added: "In order to get the proper effect, it is necessary to down the goblet in one go."

"Right," said the earnest king. He took the goblet, downed it all, got up from his chair, reeled around the chamber for ten minutes and was sick.

Eventually, he returned to his chair and told the accused: "If this is what you drink, I can see you have been punished already."

So much for material pleasure.

Taking the Rough with the Smooth

You may argue that life is never just a bowl of cherries even for the inspired, dedicated scholar. Correct, but there is the added factor that the one who observes mitzvos is also far more capable of taking the rough with the smooth. He knows that Hashem never does bad. He may at some point deny a person what he wants, but sooner or later, it will become clear that what happened instead was for his benefit.

One story I heard lately was about a lady looking for a shidduch. She was told a well-to-do family with a reputedly brilliant and refined son was making inquiries about her. The young man's family, however, worked slowly. For three months, she would hear again and again that the family was making inquiries and more inquiries. This was nerve-racking; but she thought she could justify it and waited.

In the end, a shadchan contacted her on behalf of the family and told her to phone the young man's mother to make an appointment to meet the young man, which she did. The lady pompously told her she was too busy to hold a meeting the present week . . . "Phone me next week. We'll look into it then."

"But the shadchan told me to phone you."

"I know. But I'm too busy. Understand?"

This made her think. If the mother's rude, maybe the son was too. She had been told, too, that in making shidduch inquiries, one should ask specific questions. General questions like: "Is he a nice boy?" invite vague answers.

So she asked around whether the boy has gratitude to people or if he takes them for granted. What she was told made her wary.

Before phoning the mother back, she was offered another shidduch, checked his references quickly and met him. Not only was the young man scholarly and well-mannered, but amazingly compatible -- and she married him. Had she met the first young man, who knows what would have happened? All she had endured was for the good.

Today the serpent and his crude temptations are everywhere. Even so, it is not difficult to base your life on real pleasure ranging from Torah study to mitzvos performed with exactitude and chesed.

True Happiness as a Duty

Later in the parsha, we see that love for Hashem, similar to love of the life of mitzvos as we described it above, is also a commandment.

In the verses 13:2-6, we encounter the warning against being influenced by a false prophet who will inspire you with stories and wonders and entice you to alien worship. We are told too that Hashem Himself is the instigator of this challenge and His motive is to test you in order to know whether you love Him or not.

Now why should Hashem wish to challenge us? Chok contends that when the false prophet supplies us with powerful arguments to follow him, we will find in ourselves more love for Hashem than we were aware we had and thereby resist his persuasion. However, it is clear that love for Hashem is the best means of overcoming the challenge. Let us illustrate this.

Illustration of a Test

Let's say a man takes over a shop. He runs it from Sunday to Friday, and for the first six months his profit is $1,000 per week. At this point, he says to himself: "I have a large family. I need $4,000 per month to cover costs. But I also have to pay bank loan payments on the shop: $500 per month. This puts me in deficit at $500 per month. In addition, the average daily profit is $170 and on Shabbos, the main shopping day, it ought to be double or triple. Therefore," he concludes, "it makes perfect sense to open it (choliloh) on Shabbos, too."

And let's say in addition that the man's bank manager and wife, fearing the man's financial doom, repeatedly ask him why he does not trade on Shabbos.

If the man refuses because he is afraid of the punishment the Torah provides for the transgressor of Shabbos, he'll stay at home on Shabbos but dream every minute of opening the shop and be sour at Hashem choliloh for not letting him do so. This is scarcely avodas Hashem.

But if he loves Hashem, if he enthuses over the life of blessing provided by the routine of mitzvos, he won't think twice about this calculation. He'll simply say: "I wouldn't give up on Shabbos for all the money in the world. Life's full of challenges. If Hashem gives me $4,000 profit in the course of six days, He can just as easily give me $5,000 profit," and he'll start thinking of new angles to increase the Sun-Fri profit.

Fear of Chava

Similarly, Chava told the serpent that Hashem ordered her not to eat from and not to touch the tree of knowledge and that if she does, she will die. The serpent nudged her arm, she touched the tree and remained alive. "Great," said Chava. "There's nothing to be afraid of," and she ate the fruit of the tree.

Evidently in answering the serpent, she mentioned the punishment aspect of Hashem's order because fear was the root of her answer. Had she told the serpent that Hashem ordered her not to eat of the tree and that's all, the serpent would not have been able to trap her.

Thus love of Hashem and mitzvos is a combined lesson of the parsha.

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