Parashat Bereishit: The Value of a Mitzvah

As we begin the cycle of the Torah-reading once again, we will use this opportunity to take a look “behind the scenes” as Creation was taking place. The Midrash relates that when Hashem created the world and separated the lower waters from the upper waters, the lower waters complained. They argued that they did not want to be lowered to the physical world where they would be far from the Shechinah. Hashem compensated them with the mitzvah of nisuch ha’mayim – the ritual of the pouring of the waters onto the altar during the festival of Succos.

Rav Yosef Salant, in Sefer Be’er Yosef, asks an obvious question. How does this provide compensation for all the waters of the lower world, including rivers, lakes, and oceans? How are they to be appeased with this mitzvah when it is performed only seven days out of the entire year, during the festival of Succos, and only when the Beis ha’Mikdash is standing, and only from the waters of the Gichon spring in Yerushalayim?

He answers that a mitzvah is not something which can be measured in numbers. Its awesome effects have ripples for all eternity and contain unfathomable greatness in this world and the next. Therefore, while this ritual takes place relatively infrequently, the fact that it is a mitzvah makes it a worthwhile compensation for the lower waters.

Now that the awesome days of the Yamim Nora’im have passed, including the pinnacle days of these special weeks, Hoshanah Rabbah and Simchas Torah, what do we have that will elevate us as we return to the mundane activities of the regular days of the year? The answer is that we have mitzvos. We can feel excited, uplifted, and spiritually invigorated from a single mitzvah.

A simple soldier once entered the room where the revered Slonimer Rebbe was leading a tish. The Rebbe immediately ushered him over, inquiring as to what he had done that had caused his face to glow with such a beautiful shine. Abashedly, he told the Rebbe of how his army battalion had recently moved to another location. He had been eager to fulfill the mitzvah of sitting in a Succah and had therefore asked the general if he could take the time to go and find a Succah. The general refused to allow him to leave.

In the middle of the night, while his fellow soldiers were asleep, he risked imprisonment by leaving the camp and searching for a Succah. After some time, he succeeded in finding one.

The Rebbe pressed him further, asking him what he had done following his precious find. The soldier explained how he had spent the rest of the night dancing, celebrating the joy he felt for having been able to fulfill a mitzvah.

The Midrash mentioned above teaches us that the purpose of the entire creation of this magnificent world was in order for us to fulfill mitzvos. Mitzvos elevate us and bring us close to Hashem, and, if we approach them with the proper attitude, are a source of tremendous pleasure and simchah in our lives.