The Man on the Tightrope

A man once came to a town and offered to walk across the river on a tightrope for a hundred guilden. Among the many people who gathered to watch was Rav Chaim of Krasna. He watched the man very intently as he walked across the rope.

When he was asked why he was so interested, Rav Chaim told his followers that watching this scene had taught him a great lesson in the service of Hashem. "Here I saw a man putting his life at risk in order to earn a hundred guilden. Yet as I watched him walk the rope, I realized that his entire concentration was on the task before him. Had he thought about the reward even for one second, he would have lost his concentration and fallen into the river."

"From this I learned that although Hashem has promised us reward for the mitzvos, when we perform a mitzvah our entire concentration should be on accomplishing it to the best of our ability, and not on thinking about the reward."