Ben Azzai (Avot 4:2) tells us:
הֱוֵי רָץ
לְמִצְוָה קַלָּה, וּבוֹרֵֽחַ מִן הָעֲבֵרָה, שֶׁמִּצְוָה גוֹרֶֽרֶת מִצְוָה,
וַעֲבֵרָה גוֹרֶֽרֶת עֲבֵרָה, שֶׁשְּׂכַר מִצְוָה מִצְוָה, וּשְׂכַר עֲבֵרָה
עֲבֵרָה
Run to pursue a light mitzvah,
and flee from a transgression. For a mitzvah leads to another mitzvah, and a
transgression leads to transgression. [This is] because the reward of a mitzvah
is a mitzvah, and the reward of transgression is transgression.
What does it mean to say that the reward of a mitzvah is a
mitzvah? Taken at face value, every divine commandment serves a dual capacity. Before
it is fulfilled, it is an instruction from God that requires our compliance.
After we comply with it, it serves as a hook to drag behind it another
commandment which, in turn, requires our compliance. Since compliance is a
meritorious act that we perform in accordance with God’s will, it earns us a
divine reward. But is that all?
Rabbeinu Yonah forcefully rejects the notion that the only
reward for compliance with a mitzvah is a mitzvah. He writes:
לא חס ושלום
שזהו שכרה שאם כן מה שכר יש לו ולא כן הדבר כי שכרה קיים הוא לעולם הבא. אלא
שר"ל שפרי מצוה מצוה ואוכל פרותיה בעולם הזה שמסייעת אותו לעשות מצוות אחרות
ונמצא הקרן מתרבה וקיים לעולם הבא. וזה שנאמר (ישעיה ג' י') אמרו צדיק כי טוב כי
פרי מעלליהם יאכלו
“Heaven forbid that this should be considered the entire reward—for if so,
what reward would remain? Rather, the true reward is preserved for the World to
Come. The meaning is, however, that the "fruit" of a commandment is
the commandment itself; one enjoys its fruits in this world insofar as it
assists one in performing other commandments, thereby causing the principal—the
merit itself—to multiply and endure for the World to Come. This is the meaning
of the verse (Yeshayah 3:10): "Say of the righteous that it shall be well
with them, for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds"
This explanation is quite in keeping with the general
approach in Avot that rewards for mitzvot are left for the World to Come, for
which reason we are encouraged to trust that God will deliver them (Rabbi
Elazar ben Arach at Avot 2:17, Rabban Gamliel at Avot 2:21). And, while we know
there will be rewards, we shouldn’t make our service to God by performing His
precepts conditional on the receipt of those rewards (Antigonos Ish Socho, Avot
1:3).
It may seem strange that we are asked both to believe with
confidence that we will receive a payback for our mitzvot and to perform them
with the mindset of one who is not setting out to receive that payback, but in
reality our Jewish selves are trained to cultivate a bifurcated, contrary mind-frame
and this is just one example. We are to understand that everything is minutely
controlled and orchestrated by God but that nonetheless we have been entrusted
with bechirah, free will. We are told to not to judge others at all, to
judge them favorably and to judge them critically. We must prioritize the
learning of Torah over everything else, and that it is not the learning of Torah
but how we put it into practice that counts, and so on.
Ultimately we should not be mercenaries in search of terrestrial
or celestial booty. We should comply with God’s instructions with a mindset of obedience,
acceptance, altruism and love. These are qualities that, if we understand and
prioritize them, should help us cultivate better relationships with God and
with humankind.
We are complex creatures who need different mindsets and
different guidance in different situations. Much of the content of Avot is
directed towards the cultivation of different responses that the appropriate in
different situations. Reward and punishment are never far from the surface of
Jewish life, any more than they are in non-Jewish life, and here in our mishnah
Ben Azzai reminds us that what constitutes a reward for Torah compliance should
be seen in purely material terms.
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