By: Rabbi Shlomo Ezagui
A human being is generally divided into three parts. The head, body and legs. These three parts represent three distinct ways we go about our lives and we fulfill our G-dly mission here in this world. We must use our minds and understanding, we arouse our feelings and fire the emotions in our heart, and the faculty and capacity of action. To do and go places.
The commandments in the Bible are also divided into these three categories. One of the most important commandments in the Bible is to “Know the G-d of your fathers…”. “Know this day …that G-d is G-d in the heavens above and in the earth below, there is none other besides Him.”
We are instructed to study and toil in our understanding of the Bible with our minds, “day and night.” And many more commandments which are fulfilled with our brains and the proficiency to think.
There are commandments that are fulfilled with our heart and emotions. The two basic commandments underlying the fulfillment of all the others, is to love G-d, and to fear G-d. These two emotions form the basis and foundation for the performance of all other deeds in the Torah.
Another example of serving G-d with our heart. We are commanded to love each other, like ourselves.
Then there are the commandments that must be done whether we’re with the program intellectually or emotionally. No matter what we think or how we feel when doing these deeds, we receive full reward for having done them, in deed.
When doing things with our minds and our hearts, everyone is on a different level. Some are more superficial than others, some appreciate much deeper the opportunity to have value in the eyes of G-d. Some care more, some care less.
However when it comes to deed and a commitment to do, no matter what, over there, everyone is exactly the same. It doesn’t matter how the person thinks or feels since the deed is the same in someone who is intelligent and or someone who is not.
Let’s take for example the deed of charity and kindness and the same is true for all the commandments performed in deed. No matter how a person feels, when assistance is offered to the needy, it’s the same hundred dollars coming from a genius or coming from a simple person. Crossing the little old lady across the street is the same, no matter who is doing it.
The full limit and maximum of a human being, which is equal in everyone, is reached when “doing” the right thing.
Sometimes however one may wonder, how is it always possible to throw oneself entirely in the deed. It may happen that the mind and the heart stand in the way of a total commitment in deed. Therefore the Bible also tells us to recognize the limitations of the mind and the emotions, which ARE different in every person.
This is a world of deed. When it comes down to it, the only thing that matters and that takes us places, is the act of doing. By realizing how limited our minds really are and how unreliable many times our feeling really are, we conclude that no matter what the results have been, we must continue always doing.
This commitment to do, under all circumstances and no matter what, not just when we feel like it or it makes sense to us, arouses in G-d a similar and in kind reaction, to give, no matter what. When a person is committed to doing, this has the power to transform any hindrances or limitations above, to a maximum flow of giving and blessings.
To read more articles from Rabbi Ezagui visit him at http://koshercaffeine.blogspot.com
