The 60-Second Intention That Transforms a Mitzvah

In his weekly column in Yated Ne'eman, published today (Wednesday), Rabbi Shmuel Baruch Ganot explains the power of thought and intention that accompanies every mitzvah.

"Recently, a fascinating study was published with a powerful lesson," writes Rabbi Ganot. "Researchers followed 80 hotel room attendants who clean and organize guest rooms. Forty of them were brought into a room where fitness trainers explained that their hard, physical work would help them maintain strong physical fitness. Physicians spoke to them and explained that the strenuous labor involved in cleaning dozens of rooms a day—lugging vacuum cleaners and carts of cleaning supplies, folding blankets, and changing linens—would make them healthier. The physical effort would lead to marked health improvements, like calorie burn, cardiorespiratory endurance, and reduced blood pressure. That is what they told the forty attendants and housekeepers, while the other group received no such explanation," Rabbi Ganot continues.

"After a month, all 80 attendants were tested. It turned out that the 40 who had heard that their work benefits their health had improved dramatically: their blood pressure improved, and their overall health was vastly better. Among the other 40, who were told nothing about how their demanding work could affect them, there was no significant improvement."

"The researchers reached a simple conclusion: Two people can do the very same act, but the intention and mindset behind it can change everything—not only emotionally, but physically as well," the rabbi explains, drawing the lesson.

Rabbi Ganot continues and quotes the Mishnah Berurah in the laws of Shabbat: "And it is good that one say about everything he buys, 'This is in honor of Shabbat,' because speech has great power in holiness." In other words, two Jews bought the same shopping list. Both purchased loaves of challah, a bottle of wine, and items for the Shabbat meals—yet one of them explicitly intended and said: "In honor of Shabbat," and that very speech "has great power in holiness." Why? Because heartfelt intention changes the entire purchase.

Rabbi Ganot goes on to cite the words of the Gemara in tractate Shabbat, which quotes the verse in Proverbs: "Hear, for I will speak princely things." The Gemara asks: "Why are the words of Torah compared to a prince? To tell you: Just as a prince has the power to kill and to give life—so too the words of Torah have the power to kill and to give life. As Rava said: 'For those who engage with it to the right—it is an elixir of life; for those who engage with it to the left—it is an elixir of death.'"

Rashi explains the Gemara's words: "'Those who engage with it to the right'—they apply all their strength to it and are preoccupied with grasping its secret, like a person who uses his right hand, which is primary." Two Jews are studying Torah. The Gemara page is truly their business, and not only are they engaged in it, they are engaged "with all their strength." But one of them is also "preoccupied with grasping its secret." He is not only studying Torah; he is also mentally and emotionally driven by the sense that he must know its secrets and depth. And then he is a different person—uplifted, elevated. Of him it is said that he "engages with it to the right."

"What is unique about that person?" Rabbi Ganot asks, and answers: "The mental preoccupation—the feeling pulsing within me that if I do not know the secrets of the Torah, my life is not a life."

Rabbi Ganot concludes: "We all count Sefirat HaOmer every evening. Our counting will be magnified and the reward will be doubled if we dedicate a minute to think and reflect that right now we are counting—attentively and with excitement—the days leading up to that most longed-for day, the day on which we receive the Torah anew. Without the Torah and the mitzvot, we would be just ordinary mortals. But now we are lifted above every nation and tongue—holy and exalted. A few moments of focus and thought, and we become different people."