Transcription
Says the world stands upon three things: through the study of Torah, through the study of prayer, and through charity. So these are the three pillars upon which the world stands. Number one, Torah study. Number two, prayer. Number three, charity.
And so comes along Antigone, says that these three things that you are supposed to do should be done with love. It should not be done simply out of rote. It should not be done because you are coerced. And it should be done with the element of loving God. And therefore, do not be like one who serves his master for the sake of reward, but rather do it not for the sake of reward. In other words, because you love the person, it's a selfless love. And because of this, he will come to serve Hashem properly.
Furthermore, he concludes vehemently, "The fear of Heaven shall be upon you." As Rabbi Bartolo explains that when a person serves God out of love, this inspires the person to do and fulfill the 248 positive commandments. And when you serve God out of fear, one now follows the 365 negative commandments. So the positive commandments are inspired through love. And therefore, because we love someone, we want to do those mitzvahs. We want to make that person happy by fulfilling their will. And fear brings us to refrain from doing the things that hurt that person. This is the simple interpretation of the Mishna.
And as the Alter explains in Tanya, that love and fear are actually two wings to a bird. That a person can do a mitzvah simply because he is commanded to do so, but the mitzvah stays down here in this world. For the mitzvah to be elevated, for the mitzvah to go up to Heaven and to go to Almighty God, for this, the person needs to do the mitzvah with love and fear.
So this is the simple interpretation. What is, what is the hint? The hint of the Mishna here is for the future. A hint for the future for the coming of Mashiach. The Mishna tells us here, "Don't do the mitzvah for the sake of a prize." A prize is a reward. What kind of reward? A cancellation prize. It's not the ultimate reward. It's only a little reward, says the Mishna. Do the mitzvah for the sake of the ultimate reward, and that is the coming of Mashiach.
As it is stated at the end of chapter 2 in Ethics of our Fathers, "One should know, the righteous know that the true reward of the righteous is in the world to come, after Mashiach." Because in this world, one only receives the reward as the fruit of the tree, but not the principle. But the ultimate reward is for Mashiach. And therefore, "da" not only means to know, but also that means to enjoin. To not to become one, become one with the future. In other words, live the future now.
If Mashiach would be here right now, how would you act? What would you do? Many people say, "Look, now I have to work for a living. Now I have to eat three times a day. Now I have so many responsibilities. But when Mashiach will come, then I'll learn more Torah. Then I'll do more mitzvahs." Comes the Mishna and says, "Live now the way you will live after Mashiach comes." See the reward of that mitzvah.
And as the Rambam tells us, that a person should always view the world on a scale, 50 good deeds and 50 bad deeds, and that one deed will tip the scale to salvation. And that is the meaning: do the mitzvah by understanding that this mitzvah can truly bring about a transformation in the entire world, not only for the sake of a personal gift, of a personal cancellation prize that you will receive on your own.
What is the drash? How do we understand the Mishna on the level of homiletics? Who is Antigone? Besides being the disciple of Shimon HaTzaddik, he was also the teacher of many disciples. And two of his disciples unfortunately left the fold, and they started their own religion. And they started the religion of the Sadducees and the Boethusians. These were Jews who believed only in the written law, but they did not believe in the oral law. And therefore, they felt they had the right to interpret the Torah according to their own estimation and their own understanding.
So the Torah says, "Put tefillin between your eyes." They actually put the tefillin in between their eyes. In the Torah, it doesn't say that the tefillin needs to be square. So they may drown filled in. And this is the way they observe the entire Torah. Antigone asked himself, "What happened? How is it possible that my students, who I taught the Torah and the entire Torah with all love and detail, should create such a terrible religion?"
And Antigone came to the conclusion that even though he taught them to love God and to serve Torah with tremendous, tremendous feeling and logic, at the same time, he did not push enough the concept of vehemence. That ultimately, we need to have the yoke of God upon ourselves. Which means, when a person comes to a crossroads, when a person has a difficulty in life, at that moment, he cannot serve God with love. At that moment, he cannot serve God with logic. He needs to revert back to vehemence, to accept the yoke of God upon himself.
We find ourselves now in the time of a pandemic, a time when the entire world is in a state of panic, and there is a lot of collateral damage. And we ask ourselves, "Where's the love? How do we serve God with love?" And therefore, Antigone says, there are times you cannot serve God with love. There are times we simply have to accept the yoke of God. There are times we simply have to do the mitzvah because that's the way it truly is.
And so this is the drash, the homiletics in the Mishna of Pirkei Avot. What is the sod? What is the esoteric? Says the Mishna, "Al tihu k'avadim she'ovdin et ha'adom she'lo bishvil sachar." You should not be like servants who serve their master in order to receive reward, but rather you should be like a servant who serves his master not for the sake of rewards. And finally, "May the fear of Heaven be upon you."
What is the concept according to Kabbalah? Are we on, are we on? According to Kabbalah, there are two levels of love and there are two levels of fear. There's the level of "yirah" and the level of "ahavah." There's the lower level of fear and a higher level of fear. And similarly, it is the higher level of love and the lower level of love.
Means the lower level of fear, that we serve God because we're afraid. We're afraid of punishment. If I don't give tzedakah, I won't make a good living. If I don't keep Shabbos, I'm going to burn in purgatory. This is called the lower level of fear. Then there's a higher level of fear, which is a fear of "exaltness." That because of our love for God, because God is so awesome, and because God is so amazing and great, we feel embarrassed not to fulfill God's will. This is the ultimate level of "yirat shamayim," the ultimate level of fear.
And then you have two levels of love. "Ahavat shuk" means I serve God, I do the mitzvot for the sake of reward. If I give tzedakah, I know God will pay me back 10 times more. I know if I keep kosher, I will be healthy. I know if I keep Shabbos, I will have peace and tranquility in my life. So therefore, I have the "ahavat shuk." I fulfill the love because of the fact that I want to receive reward.
And then there's the higher love, "ahavah rabah." The love that Jacob had for his wife Rachel, to serve for seven years in order to marry her. In other words, it was selfless love. It was because of his commitment to that person. Because of that commitment to Almighty God, and because of our tremendous love to fulfill the needs and the desires of God, of our Master, therefore we are willing to do God's will unconditionally.
And therefore, the Mishna here is telling us these four levels. The Mishna begins by saying, "Al tihu k'avadim" - don't be like servants who serve God for the lower level of fear, for the sake of punishment. "Al bishvil sachar" - for the sake of reward, which is the lower love, the love that brings about reward. But rather, we should be like a servant who serves God, "she'yihyeh alav" - not in order to receive reward, which is the higher love, "ahavah rabah." And then he concludes, "May the fear of Heaven be upon you." This is the higher level of fear, "yirah."
So this is the interpretation according to Kabbalah, that this Mishna alludes to the two levels of fear and the two levels of love. What is, why must the Mishna begin with a negative and then go back to a positive? Why must the Mishna begin by saying, "Don't be like this, rather be like that"? Simply say what you want. Simply say, "You shall be like servants who serve the Master not for the sake of reward."
So here the Rabbi gives a very beautiful insight and explains the Mishna as follows: In truth, according to Judaism, according to Jewish guide, according to our philosophy, a person is allowed to serve God for the sake of a reward. And how do we know this? How do we know that we are allowed to serve God in order to receive reward? The answer is because the Torah itself gives us reward. Torah says, "If you will have mezuzahs, if you will place mezuzahs at your doorposts, then you may come, you will live long." The Torah tells us in the Ten Commandments, "If you respect your father and mother." And as I said many times, it doesn't say you have to love your father and mother, it says you have to respect them. Because sometimes it's difficult to love your parents, but you have to respect them anyway. By doing so, this will bring you long years.
So the Torah itself tells us that we have a right to do a mitzvah for the sake of reward. Similarly, the Gemara tells us in Tractate Sukkah, page 47, side A, "L'fi she'lo lishmah." Always a person should study Torah "she'lo lishmah" - not for the proper reasons. Eventually, you'll come to do for the right reasons. But you can study Torah in order to become a rabbi. You can study Torah in order to get paid for your classes. Now, is this the ultimate level? No, it's not.
And therefore, says the Rebbe, that there are two levels of how to serve God. The first level is, we serve God for the sake of reward. And that's okay. If you need it, if you want it, if that motivates you, that's proper, that's kosher. However, being that we are learning now Ethics of our Fathers, which are the teachings of the pious ones who go beyond the letter of the law, comes along the Mishna and says that even though it's okay to serve God for the sake of reward, but ultimately, that should not be your priority. Ultimately, you shall serve God why? Because God is your Master. Because God is Almighty. And therefore, out of tremendous awe before God, out of tremendous love before God, you want to serve God because of God's awesomeness, not because of what you will receive in return.
The Mishna concludes, and therefore, "May the fear of God be upon you." The question comes to mind, why does it say "upon you" and not "in you"? You want the fear to be internalized, not simply to be all-encompassing. And here, this takes it one step further and says, there are two levels. There are two levels in the supernal fear of Almighty God. One becomes through "yirat shamayim," one is through an awakening from below, and one is through "v'yitein," an awakening from above.
In other words, that a person trains himself and works on himself diligently to acquire this higher love of the supernal love. But this is the limit that a man or a woman or a human on their own can acquire. So they worked on themselves, they developed their talents to serve God simply out of God's awesomeness. And therefore, they now acquire this level of "yirat shamayim" as a personal supernal fear.
There is a higher level that goes even beyond that, and that is, "God places His dread." That God places His awesomeness upon you, which brings the individual to an even greater level of a greater level of fear for God's awesomeness. And this is the meaning of "v'yitein," that God should bring upon you. It's a prayer that God should place upon you a greater level of fear. After you have toiled and you have developed this higher level of fear, now God rewards you that you are able to appreciate the true awesomeness of God, which brings about a greater level of respect for the Almighty.
A story is told that a great Hasidic master used to pray every night, "Almighty God, please, I want to reach the level of having the same fear, the same "yirat shamayim" that the Rambam, the great Rambam, and the awesome Rabbi Akiva, the great, mighty eagle, had before Almighty God." And one night, his prayers were answered, and he felt the tremendous, tremendous awesomeness of God that was placed upon him. However, he was in a state of dread and shivers that he could not do anything. He could not study. He could not learn. And he asked God to remove this great "armed awesomeness" from upon him.
A story is told that a a hostage once came to the Lubavitcher Rebbe. He was requested from a different Hasidic sect and he witnessed to that and watched it and heard the teachings of the Rebbe. And after a very short while, he went to the Rebbe and said, "I'm afraid I'm becoming your hostage." So the Rebbe smiled, and he said to him, "Why must you do it out of fear when you can do it out of love?"
And this is the message of Antigone. Why do it out of fear when you could do it out of love? In other words, it's very important to understand Torah logically. It's very important to understand the Torah out of fear. But most importantly, to do it out of love. And once we reach the higher level of love, then God will place a greater level of supernal fear, so that we serve Almighty God not because of fear of punishment, but rather to serve God because of awesomeness and respect and dignity.
And through this, we will see the ultimate blessings that Mashiach will come and bring us a world of peace and harmony, when we will truly see God with our own eyes. And therefore, this love for God and this fear for God will be a natural response to the actual seeing and understanding of Almighty God. To wish each and every one of you exhibited a happy and healthy sweet New Year.