One often hears and reads people saying why it is worthwhile to keep mitzvos. Example: One graduate of one of the post high school Israel programs came back for a visit and made a siyum masechta. He, with his long hair [nothing against long hair. My daughters have long hair and I totally adore them!] told the boys that it is worthwhile to learn Gemara b/c it makes you smarter in business.... [He neglected to mention that if you get into Rav Rosensweig's very challenging shiur in YU, you really improve your standing with the shtark meidlach in Stern... Or so they say:-)].
No. We learn Torah b/c it is רצון השם.
It is GREAT to keep Shabbos, we hear, b/c one can turn off technology for a day.
No. We keep Shabbos b/c that is the רצון השם.
There are people who take a "digital Sabbath" From sundown Friday night until dark on Sat. night they don't use anything related to social media. So they cook, drive, write etc. etc. but no phone. That is where the utilitarian attitude towards mitzvos can lead one. One sees what they personally get out of it and acts accordingly, ignoring the actual Laws and - more significantly - the Lawgiver.
Even the letz we recently spoke about, after calling religion silly, added that he can see how various laws, such as sitting shiva, really add to the quality of life. All about ME.
Our generation is a VERY self centered and coddled one so the notion of sacrificing for a Higher Authority is foreign.
This is from a 1976 Tradition article written by Prof. Zev Harvey:
While the Torah, from its beginning to its end, commands us to fulfill the needs of others, our observance of the commandments of the Torah must not be toward the end of fulfilling
our own needs. The mitsvot are not means toward an end: they are the service of God for its own sake. We abstain from pig not
because we fear it is unhealthful, for that would be the worship
of our stomachs, not God. We observe the Sabbath not because
Philo, Josephus, or contemporary sociologists have convinced
us that it has social benefits, for that would be the worship of
society, not God. We observe the laws of taharat ha-mishpahah
not for the sake of improving our marital relations ("the recurring honeymoon"), for that would be the worship of sex, not
God. Our rule is that of Antigonos, the man of Sokho: "Be not
like servants who serve their master in order to get a reward,
but be like servants who serve their master not in order to get
a reward . . .". "Happy is the man . . . who delights greatly
in His commandments" (Ps. 112:1); our Rabbis underscored
"in His commandments, not in the reward of His commandments!".
"Said Rabbi Dostai bar Yanai: 'Why did the Omnipresent not create hot springs in Jerusalem like the hot springs
of Tiberias?' " Why should the Holy City not merit what Tiberias
merits? Answer: "So that a man not say to his friend, "Let us go
up in pilgrimage to Jerusalem; if we go up but for the sake of
one bath, it will suffice us.' There would thus result a pilgrimage
not for its own sake ['aliyah she-lo li-shmah] !"
Our rabbis
contrasted two kinds of Torah: Torah for its own sake (li-shmah) vs. Torah not for its own sake (she-enah li-shmah).
They significantly called the former the Torah of Love (shel
hesed) and the latter the Torah which is Not of Love (she-enah
shel hesed). The true servant of God is the servant in love
(oved me-ahavah), his is the Torah of Love, whose commandments are not means but ends, whose commandment "Love your neighbor as yourself" does not make its claim upon us on the
basis of psychotherapeutic or socio-moral considerations (e.g.,
that we will feel good, attain peace of mind, overcome our hang
ups, win friends, or achieve peace in our cities), but solely on
the basis of its being a Divine command: Love your neighbor as yourself: I am Hashem."
To add: The Ramban in this past week's parsha [ואתחנן]:
To add: The Ramban in this past week's parsha [ואתחנן]:
ועשית הישר והטוב בעיני ה' - על דרך הפשט יאמר תשמרו מצות השם ועדותיו וחקותיו ותכוין בעשייתן לעשות הטוב והישר בעיניו בלבד ולמען ייטב לך, הבטחה, יאמר כי בעשותך הטוב בעיניו ייטב לך, כי השם מטיב לטובים ולישרים בלבותם.
