On the subject of mitzvot, here is a thought for those of us who sometimes struggle with them. It is based on Pirkei Avot 5:26, in which Ben He He says "According to the effort is the reward".
In general terms we have not the faintest idea of the nature and quality of rewards enjoyed in the World to Come for
good deeds done in our lifetimes. We have however received some guidance from our
tradition, and this enables us to make better decisions regarding performance of mitzvot and our commitment to Torah
observance. One element of this guidance concerns how we should feel towards mitzvot that are hard or troublesome to
perform. How does this work? The problem
below provides an illustration.
Two people perform an identical mitzvah — returning a wallet full of
money to its rightful owner. The first
is happy to perform this mitzvah
since he is wealthy and the wallet’s contents mean little to him. The second,
unemployed and racked by poverty, could make great use of the cash and is
sorely tempted to do so, but nonetheless returns the wallet.
It seems only right that the poor man should receive a greater reward since his
is the more meritorious act: he has had to overcome both his financial needs
and his yetzer hara in order to
perform it. However the return of the
wallet is objectively the same act, regardless of who has performed it — and if
the rich man is to receive only a trifling reward for this act because he has
not found it difficult, would he not be better served by leaving the wallet in
the ground on the assumption that someone else was bound to find and return it, giving another person the chance to get a bigger reward for returning it reluctantly. He could then set off instead to perform some other mitzvah
that he found more difficult.
A solution to this problem comes
from the Maharal's suggestion that there are two rewards for each mitzvah.
The first is on a standard tariff and is earned for ‘ticking the box’ by
fulfilling a commandment, regardless of the manner in which it has been
fulfilled. The second relates solely to
the effort and hardship incurred in the act of fulfilment. On this basis, in the problem described
above, the poor man and the rich would receive identical rewards for the basic
act of returning the wallet, while the poor man would receive a greater,
personalised reward related to the need to overcome his personal issues, issues
that were not relevant to the performance of the same mitzvah by the rich man.
