Two Kinds of Intent

Rav Schorr taught that when a person acts, there are different levels of intent and also different kinds of it. He cited Rashi on the verse that says Shem and Yefes took a garment and covered Noach. Rashi explains that Shem exerted himself more in the mitzvah, and so his descendants received the mitzvah of tzitzis, while Yefes’s descendants merited burial, as the verse in Yechezkel says, “I will give Gog a burial place.” Their actions were the same. The difference lay in intent. Shem’s intent had inner depth, true understanding and a mitzvah purpose, and so he merited a mitzvah that expresses the inner nature of a garment. Yefes’s intent was external and aesthetic, so that things would look nice. This is the essence of Yavan, he said, to care only for outer beauty and to ignore inner depth.