Why Commandment Comes Before Comprehension

In this week’s Torah portion, Parashat Mishpatim, it states: “And he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the ears of the people, and they said: ‘All that the Lord has spoken, we will do and we will hear’” (Shemot 24:7).

The well-known question regarding Israel’s declaration at Mount Sinai — “We will do and we will hear” focuses on how the people could commit themselves to action before hearing and understanding the commandments they were expected to observe. After all, a person is normally expected to hear and comprehend before acting.

A similar question can be asked about the statement of the Sages that Avraham our forefather observed the entire Torah even before it was given. How could Avraham have known what to do?

The Mitzvot as Spiritual Nourishment

The Netivot Shalom (the Rebbe of Slonim), as cited in the book Divrei Moshe, offers a unique explanation.

The 613 mitzvot are spiritual nourishment for the soul, just as food is physical nourishment for the body. If so, why is a person not naturally and instinctively drawn to the mitzvot, just as he is drawn to physical food? The body instinctively recognizes hunger and seeks nourishment — why does the soul not function the same way with mitzvot?

As the Netivot Shalom writes: “Even a one-day-old infant instinctively recognizes the hunger of his soul and cries until he is fed. So too it should have been with Torah, that every Jew would naturally crave the fulfillment of all 613 mitzvot, which are the spiritual nourishment of his soul.”

The reason a person does not naturally feel this spiritual hunger lies in the coarseness of physicality. The material aspect of a human being — the physical body and its natural tendencies, is dense and heavy. Because of this coarseness, physicality cannot naturally sense or understand spiritual matters in a direct way.

Avraham’s Complete Refinement

The Netivot Shalom explains that Avraham our forefather reached an exceptionally high spiritual level due to a complete refinement of his physicality. As the Sages taught, from the age of three Avraham “recognized his Creator.” From that point on, he developed a deep connection with God and intuitively understood His will through his purified consciousness.

This refinement was expressed most powerfully in Avraham’s trial of the fiery furnace in Ur Kasdim, where he was thrown into fire because of his faith. Not only was his body unharmed, but this event demonstrated that his physicality had undergone such profound refinement that it had, in a sense, become spiritual — so much so that the fire could not harm him.

As a result of this refinement, Avraham’s very limbs were naturally drawn to the fulfillment of the mitzvot. Just as a person instinctively feels hunger and desire for food to sustain the body, Avraham experienced a spiritual hunger that naturally drew him to observe all 613 mitzvot, even before the Torah was given.

“We Will Do” Before “We Will Hear”

At Mount Sinai, the people of Israel also merited a refinement of physicality, as the Sages expressed it: “Their impurity ceased.” This refinement elevated them to such a lofty spiritual level that their very being was naturally drawn to fulfilling God’s will even before hearing the specific commandments.

This is why they were able to say “We will do” before “We will hear.” Practical observance had become part of their inner nature, a spontaneous and natural attraction to God’s will.

The Added Power of Commandment

Beyond this, God went on to command them explicitly to observe the mitzvot, thereby raising them to an even higher spiritual level.

The Sages taught: “Greater is one who is commanded and fulfills than one who fulfills without being commanded” (Kiddushin 31a). There is a unique spiritual advantage in performing mitzvot out of obedience to God’s command, not merely from inner inclination or natural drive.

The Sages further taught that God says: “That I spoke and My will was done.” This elevated quality exists only when a person fulfills mitzvot with the awareness that they are the will of God.

Understanding Versus Obedience

The Netivot Shalom, citing Divrei Moshe, sharpens an important distinction between performing a mitzvah out of intellectual understanding and performing it out of obedience to the divine command.

Honoring one’s parents, for example, is a mitzvah that human logic understands and that even non-Jews observe. When it is performed merely as a rational moral act, it remains a good deed. But when a Jew honors his parents because it is a command of God, the act is elevated to an entirely different level.

Through obedience to the command, the person awakens the root of the mitzvah — its deep inner connection to God’s will. He is not merely acting morally, but drawing higher sanctity into the world by performing the act as part of divine service.

The Two Dimensions of Every Mitzvah

The Netivot Shalom explains that every mitzvah we fulfill contains two dimensions:

Drawing Divine Sanctity into the Soul
When we perform a mitzvah, we do not merely carry out a technical action. We draw higher sanctity into our soul, originating from the spiritual root of the mitzvah. This is the meaning of the blessing, “Who has sanctified us with His commandments” — the mitzvot are the vessels through which God sanctifies us.

One Mitzvah Leads to Another
The sanctity awakened and drawn into the soul through the performance of a mitzvah strengthens a person and inspires him to fulfill additional mitzvot. In this way, each mitzvah creates a cycle of ongoing spiritual growth.

Living with Divine Wisdom

God gave the Torah and its mitzvot to the people of Israel so they could live in this world in an elevated and refined way. The Torah and its laws are not based on limited human intellect, but on higher divine wisdom.

Every mitzvah a person fulfills is not merely an external act, but a connection to divine intellect, and therefore carries immense spiritual power. Even when a person does not fully understand the depth or higher root of a mitzvah, he still draws higher sanctity into his soul through faith in the holiness of the mitzvot and in God’s will.

Serving God in this way, for the sake of His will, creates a deep bond with holiness and elevates a person in his spiritual service.