In Parsashat Ha'azinu
Devarim 32: 48-50 God commands Moses' to ascend Mount Nevo and see the land of
Canaan and then you will die on the mountain'. In our Parasha Ha'azinu, Devarim 34:1, Moses ascended Mount Nebo with one giant leap
displaying tremendous '
ze'ri'zut' , zeal and energy in fulfilling God's commandment. Moses acted in a similar way Numbers 31 when
he was commanded to 'go to war against the Midianities, take revenge for the
Children of Israel and afterward you will be gathered unto your people'. Even
though he would be bringing closer his death, he did not delay and sent the
army into battle with Pinchas as its commander. Abraham in Bereishit 22:3, expressed the same
ze'ri'zut, zeal and passion, when he got up early in the morning in order to carry
out God's command to sacrifice his son, Isaac. He would be thus hastening
Isaac's death. In these cases, the question is asked, what's the rush ? – life is so precious, there are so many opportunities
to do so many mitzvoth. Every moment, minute and certainly hours are extremely
precious. One can do so much learning and many more mitzvoth in this short time. The question is even stronger on Moses' ascent of Mount
Nevo.
Rabbi Katz from the Telse Yeshivah
asks - If Moses would have walked up the mountain in a respectable way, he
could have done a lot of learning, which meant a lot of mitzvoth in the hours
before his death. Why did Moses give up
so much for the sake of a hi'dur Mitzvah,
doing the mitzvah in an extraordinary way with ze'ri'zut, zeal and energy. The
answer is that doing mitzvoth with ze'ri'zut, passion and zeal is not
considered as something extra, but part of the mitzvah itself. It is the
expression of one's intrinsic motivation and deepest feelings. For Moses, carrying
out God's explicit commandments was more valuable than his life, despite the many opportunities to do mitzvoth.
And he did it with great happiness, zeal and ze'ri'zut, even if it brought
closer his death.
But it seems that Moses
was not so precise when he carried out God's commandments. In the case of the
war against Midian, Moses was commanded to take revenge .He himself does not go to war but sends Pinchas as
the commander. In our Parasha Moses does not immediately ascend Mount Nevo. He first gives
his final blessings to the tribes and
then leaves them to ascend the mountain. God's commandments have to
be seen in terms of their context and other Torah values. Moses sent Pinchas to
do battle, because Moses had taken refuge in Midian after feeing Egypt. It would
be throwing stones into the well, from which he drank and that would not be
showing ' gratitude ' and ha'ka'rat ha'tov. It was an act of ' de'rech eretz ',common decency and ethical behavior for Moses to first address his people and bless them before he
left them. Implicit in God's command was
to send Pinchas and not go to battle himself
and first to address and bless the nation before he ascended Mount Nevo.
Parents and educators
tend to focus on just getting kids to do the actions of the mitzvoth and will
use any extrinsic motivators such as prizes, grades and competition to motivate
kids to do the mitzvoth. This is based on a false belief that kids cannot
appreciate the beauty or value of mitzvoth and that ultimately in an automatic
way, kids will come to do things for the right reasons and with intrinsic
motivation. The truth is that it is much easier to bribe kids to do something
than to ' inspire' them to do something.
Intrinsic motivation, ze'rizut, passion and energy are not 'hidur
mitzvah ' but the mitzvah itself. The motivation for the prize not
only gets in the way of kids ' connecting' with the mitzvah itself.We also convert
the spiritual =mitzvoth into money or
other prizes. Prizes just motivate kids to get more prizes. When the focus is on the action and not making
meaning of the action we miss out on helping kids see the actions and mitzvoth
in their context.Extrinsic motivation tends to narrow focus and helps for
manual tasks or tasks that require little thinking. God's mitzvoth require us
to broaden our focus and see what we are doing in their context and in terms of
other Torah values God does not want blind obedience. He wants us to do mitzvoth
with commitment and understanding and love . Moses taught us that ze'ri'zut,
zeal and energy are intrinsic to the mitzvah and not hidur mitzvah- something extra. Moses taught how God's
commandments must be seen in a context, so values such as gratitude =' ha'ka'rat
ha'tov ', ethical behavior and common decency = 'derech eretz' are given expression when we do our
mitzvoth and interact with others.
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