A Chok Within Every Mitzvah: Reward Even Here

1“This is the chok of the Torah which Hashem commanded, saying.”¹ Notice the wording. The words “which Hashem commanded, saying” seem unnecessary; it would have been enough to say, “This is the chok of the heifer: let them take for you …,” a chok being a decree without a reason. And what does “which Hashem commanded” mean here, where it is said especially of this mitzvah?

2We may suggest an answer from the sefer Mareh Yechezkel. These are his words: “From the chukim we bring proof about the rational mitzvos: they too are far beyond our understanding, and their reasons cannot be understood any more than those of the chukim. For it has been established for us that His wisdom is far beyond ours, and that before Him ‘all the wise are as if without knowledge, and the discerning as if without understanding.’ Since we see in the chukim that He founded His Torah on His own wisdom, it follows that He founded the rational mitzvos on His wisdom too. That is why the verse does not say ‘This is the chok of the heifer,’ but ‘the chok of the Torah.’ From this chok we learn that all the rational mitzvos, too, are beyond our understanding. We may not look for leniencies based on our understanding of their reasons, for their way is wondrous, deep, lofty and high. So let a person guard himself well against the counsel of the yetzer hara, which blinds his eyes. When it entices him to transgress the words of the Torah, it offers pretexts and excuses based on the reasons of the mitzvos, until he falls into its net, for his yetzer is greater than he. So he should not consent to it or listen to it, for it is not in our power to understand and grasp these things, and no one can know how far they reach.” So far his words.²

3This lets us explain why the verse says “This is the chok of the Torah”: to teach that this principle holds for all the mitzvos of the Torah, which are all a kind of chok, like the red heifer. That is the meaning of “which Hashem commanded, saying,” leimor: this is what we are commanded “to say.” We must teach this foundation to ourselves and say it to one another. Through this we are privileged to receive abundant blessing even in this world, as we will explain. This too is hinted in the words “which Hashem commanded, saying,” for amirah, “saying,” is gentle speech.³

4This also resolves a question asked in the holy sefarim, the Chasam Sofer, the Ohev Yisrael and the Bnei Yissaschar.⁴ Rashi explains our verse: “It is a decree I have decreed, and you have no right to question it.”⁵ Yet further on, Rashi does give a reason for the mitzvah of the red heifer: like “Let the mother come and clean up her child's filth,” it atones for the sin of the Golden Calf.⁶ How can Rashi call it a decree without a reason and then give its reason? We can explain this by what we have said. Even when it seems to us that we know the reason, we must always know that we have not grasped the true reason.

5In light of this, we can explain as follows. It seems that this is why we receive reward for keeping the mitzvos. Even when a reason has been told to us, we know with certainty that we do not know or grasp the true reason. So even when we have not done the mitzvos as properly as Chazal require for reward in this world,⁷ we are still given reward. For Heaven deals with us measure for measure. Just as we know with certainty that we do not know, setting our own understanding aside and casting our burden on the intent of Hashem, Who commanded the mitzvos, so Heaven, too, makes up what we lack. It gives us reward even though we did not do the mitzvos perfectly.

6This also lets us understand the verse “If you will walk in My statutes … then I will give your rains in their season.”⁸ The commentators ask: surely “there is no reward for a mitzvah in this world”?⁹ We must also ask why the verse says “If you will walk in My statutes.” Would it not have been enough to say, “and guard My mitzvos and do them”? The verse means this. If we keep the mitzvos in this spirit, knowing with certainty that they are a kind of chok, a King's decree whose reasons are not given to be understood, we are privileged to receive reward even in this world, as we have said. This is “If you will walk in My statutes,” My chukim: let your way and your walk in keeping all the mitzvos be in the spirit of a chok, to carry out the King's decree. Through this you will be privileged to receive reward even in this world: “then I will give your rains in their season.”

7In the same way we can understand the words of Dovid HaMelech in his Tehillim: “May my heart be wholehearted in Your statutes, so that I will not be put to shame.”¹⁰ How are the two halves of the verse connected? Chazal said, “Once a person needs other people, his face changes colors like the kerum, as it says, ‘kerum zulus.’”¹¹ Dovid was speaking of this. If a person's heart is “wholehearted in Your statutes,” he always knows with certainty, even after all he has understood, that the true reason is “higher than the high.”¹² And when he does the mitzvos, he feels in his heart that all of them are a kind of chok. Then it is only fitting that he be given reward in this world. He will lack no good thing in this world, so that he will never need to ask anything of other people. This is “so that I will not be put to shame”: in this way I will be spared the shame and humiliation that come to one who needs other people.

8[This is what tzaddikim have taught on the verse “This is the chok of the Torah.”¹³ The word chukah is related to chakikah, “engraving”: a person must engrave the Torah on his heart. It seems we can explain that this engraving comes about when he keeps the whole Torah as a chukah, without trying to be clever at all, only to do the will of Hashem. Through this, when he studies the Torah's reasons in depth, he will be privileged to have a vessel that holds the Torah. Then it will not be erased from his heart, and its mark will be plain to see.]

9[From this parshah we learn that a person must keep Hashem's mitzvos with simple wholeheartedness. Then he will always keep them, and his heart will not turn aside. Not so a person who goes by reasoning and understanding in everything: that way will lead him to hold back from a mitzvah whenever his mind does not grasp its reason. But one who goes with simple wholeheartedness and does his Creator's mitzvos truly, as he should, is privileged to have Hashem, blessed be He, light up his eyes in his learning too, so that he understands the holy Torah.]

10May the Holy One, blessed be He, help us walk with simple wholeheartedness in His service, and may we soon be privileged to greet the coming of the righteous Redeemer, speedily in our days. Amen.