So, like the title says I was on my nightly run (2 mile, easy pace, gravel roads...18 min) when my mind begins to drift towards writing a new post. But, I thought, What is there to write about? I haven't exactly been in any extremely high brow theological discussions lately except on Facebook, and most of those I get out what I had to say in that forum, so why repeat myself. Most of the things I write about in my BLOG are a result of conversations I have in real life, and this is the place I flesh them out. The only thing anybody ever seems to want to talk about are my dietary habits. It's understandable it is one of the easiest things to see that makes a person stand out. But diet is such a simple thing that I felt that a post on kosher diet practices would be...I don't know...kinda silly?
Then I was reminded in a still small voice that none of the most highs laws are beneath examination or merrit. His commands are the blueprints of the universe and "not one yot or tittle" should be discarded as being unimportant. This post however is not about what one should and shouldnt eat. Like I said thats the easy part. basically dont put cheese on your burger, stay away from pork and shellfish, and your good. Of course it can be a little more complicated then that, but not really that much. the law itself is the easy part. The part that is difficult is in realising that all of His Laws, all of His commands are important.
Rab. Yahuda haNisi says, "Be careful with a minor mitzvah (commandment) as with a major one, for you do not know the reward for the mitzvos." It's true, think about it. The vast majority of the commandments don't say what the accomponying reward is for performing them. They only state that these are the commands of the most high. Yeshua does go on to say that we need to focus on the "weithier matters of the Law", BUT he never says that the other laws can be ignored. Not only this, but knowing the reward associated with a command would tend to make the mitzvot into little more then magickal incantations, used to make things happen. Prob not what Hashem had in mind when he asked Moshe to write this stuff down.
Rav Ben Azzai said, "run to perform [even] a minor mitzvah (commandment) and flee from sin, for one mitzvah leads to another mitzvah, and one sin leads to another sin; for the reward of a mitzvah is a mitzvah and the 'reward' of a sin is a sin." So we see that a focus on the ways of G-d perpetuate that lifestyle, just as living in a state of sin tends to perpetuate that sin. It is populer in our culture to think of life as a journey (don't stop believing...hold on to that fealing...sorry), however we often forget that a journey conotates movement. If we are on a rightious path we will continualy have opertunities put in front of us to greater and greater mitzvot. Just as walking a path of death leads us deeper and deeper into depravity.
Here is a Rabbi who explains the point better then I could (http://torah.org/learning/pirkei-avos/chapter4-2.html) "The Talmud teaches that if one sins and repeats it, the sin becomes "permissible" to him (Sotah 22a). It has just lost its severity. He wasn't struck by lightning. Nothing seems to have changed; the world goes on as usual. R. Yisrael Salanter, one of the great scholars and ethicists of the 19th Century, commented on the above passage: Say one commits the same sin a third time? What then? Why then it becomes a mitzvah! We get so used to ourselves and our behavior -- not to mention our need for self-justification -- that we will no longer see any wrong in our failings. That angry streak, cynicism, loose tongue etc. -- they're all necessary to stand up for our rights, hold our own, get on with our friends etc. Slowly, our evil inclination whittles us down, and what was once unimaginable and unthinkable becomes routine and unthinking. "
I deffinitly recommend this entire article. It was extremely insightfull.
Be blessed.
