Ekev "Shmirat" Hamitzvot

Our parasha today, speaks about living consciously, with thought and reflection. It sets out the three realms, or what the great Sefas Emes, the second Gherer Rebbe calls three madregos, three levels on which Judaism functions and three demands that Judaism makes. He derives the three levels from the opening verse in our parasha today,

And it shall be if you listen to these laws and keep them and do them, G-d will keep his covenant and kindness which he promised our forefathers.

We find three realms in this verse; listening, keeping, and doing the commandments. One could view all these expressions as ultimately synonymous. To listen is to obey, and to keep is to do, so that all the verse is saying in three different ways, is to keep the commandments.

But traditionally we need to read the text more closely, and if there are 3 expressions, then there must be three unique meanings, because no two words are exactly the same in Hebrew. The Sefas Emes argues that these three realms correspond to the 3 patriarchs, Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov. The first level is hearing, which corresponds to Avraham since Avraham was the first to hear G-d’s voice.

Sefas Emes also says that the three levels correspond also to the three levels of worship mentioned in shema, with all of your heart, life and might. In this system of thought, hearing is in the heart. It means that one accepts the mitzvoth in his or her heart. One takes the mitzvoth to heart and allows one’s heart to be open to listen, understand, comprehend and appreciate the mitzvoth.

The second level is shmira, guarding or keeping. Usually we talk about shmirat hamitzvot, meaning observing the mitzvoth. As the Gemara says in Eruvin 96a, that any time it says heshamer, guard, it means the negative commandments. Shmirat Shabbat in that sense means to avoid the prohibitions of Shabbat. But Sefas Emes says the second realm is to guard our souls, to watch out, be careful about our souls. This corresponds to Isaac who was ready to give his soul on the altar. He worshipped G-d with all his soul, with his life and breath. If the first level speaks about taking the torah to heart, the second level is about connecting the mitzvoth with one’s whole soul.

The final level is asiyah, doing, not just accepting it in our heart, not just guarding our soul against violating it, but to actually do what we should do. This somehow corresponds to Jacob who was the first to tithe, which is a way of worshipping G-d with all of our meod, b’chol me’oecha, our wealth, as it says in shema.

Three realms; the heart, the soul, the body. What exactly are the three realms?

The first is to hear the mitzvoth. You know how we sometimes say, "I hear you." Loud and clear. That is the first level. It means to really get it. It is an active listening, trying to really understand all the depth of meaning of the mitzvoth. Listening means that we are open to hearing and accepting the mitzvoth. We are anxious to learn more. It is not a burden. We want to know how else to fulfill G-d’s will. We are not looking for ways to get out of mitzvoth, but on the contrary our ears are open to growth as Jews, to understanding and doing more. Many Jews perform many mitzvoth but are averse to adding to their repertoire, "I do enough already. I never did that before. That’s just not something I do." This is what it means not to be listening, not to have an open heart to torah.

The second realm is to guard the mitzvoth and keep them in our soul. What does that mean? People often let go of the mitzvah too quickly. Often people celebrate Shabbat and then, boom, on to the movies, off to the week, forget about Shabbat. Men take off their tefilin in the morning and it is over, there is no time taken to reflect on the afterglow of a mitzvah. Keeping the mitzvoth, means to let it sink in and simmer in our minds and in our heart. Like good barbeque, the mitzvoth need to simmer and baste a little in order to really penetrate with all the flavor involved.

The third realm is the performance of the mitzvoth, that is perfectly clear. We can think all we want, we can be ready and willing, but at some point you actually have to do the mitzvoth for them to come to full expression.

The Rambam writes in the laws of torah study that we need to divide our time in three parts, we need to study the written torah, the chumash, navi, one third on mishnah and the Talmud, and the last part of the learning should be to understand davar mitoch davar, to extrapolate one thing from another, and to compare one thing to the next. What the Rambam and the Sefas Emes are warning us is to spend more time thinking, more time figuring it out, more time allowing it all to jell, to sink in, to take it to heart.

I have many a time adjured us all to become "learning Jews," Jews who continue to grow, to learn, to gain new information and broaden their Jewish horizons. This is all very important, but the rambam and the sefas emes remind us of the words of this week’s parasha, tishme’un, ushmartem. It is not enough simply to do the mitzvoth, not enough to simply learn about them, but then we need to go one step further, we need to think about the mitzvoth. Like a good barbeque sauce we need to let the Shabbat seep in, we need to let the tefilot seep in, and yes, even to allow the sermon to seep in. What did the Rabbi say this week, and what did I read in the parasha this week and what does it mean to me?.

If we do this, not only will we have more meaningful lives, and more fulfilling religious experiences, but Hashem promises in our parasha that if we listen, and we keep and we do, then G-d too will keep, he will keep the covenant and the love that he has sworn to your forefathers

If we ponder the meaning of the mitzvoth and what it all means, G-d will search the innermost quarters of his heart, so to speak, and find a way to love us despite our shortcomings. And so may it be his will and let us say, amen..