The whole mitzvah

So Rabbi, I was tempted to call tonight’s episode The Whole Monty.

But instead, it is one of the few times that I call the episode literally a translation of a phrase.

Kol HaMitzvah is the whole mitzvah.

So, here we are, I’m so grateful that we’re together even though this is the last night of the (Democratic) convention.

We’re all looking forward to hearing Kamala Harris tonight.

We’ve been listening to the show all week and you’ve been in Connecticut.

How was your week?

The week in Connecticut was fantastic.

The convention is great and we’re all looking forward to tonight.

But, you know, first everybody gets to learn the parsha.

The Parsha always comes first.

So, we are in Deuteronomy 8.1 and it says, You shall faithfully observe all the instruction, Kol ha-Mitzvah, shall I enjoin upon you today, that you may thrive and increase and be able to possess the land that God promised on oath to your fathers.

The Koren translation says, All the commandments which I command thee this day.

As I pointed out, this is a strange turn of phrase.

Kol ha-Mitzvah.

We are so used to thinking of mitzvaot, of commandments, or as we say in Yiddish, mitzvahs, that we’re not used to mitzvah by itself, certainly not “the mitzvah”, but what makes this really unique is this sense of all the mitzvah.

And I did a little search on Sefaria, that only you can do in Sefaria, and I enjoin you as always to look at the show notes on Sefaria, but the phrase kol ha mitzvah only occurs in the Book of Deuteronomy.

It occurs one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight times.

And so you’ve got to assume, as we always say about Deuteronomy, that just like it’s called Mishneh Torah, which means a repetition, maybe a repackaging of the Torah, that certainly something is happening here, that it’s taking a word that was recognized, that was used previously, and giving it a new turn.

Rabbi, how does kol ha mitzvah strike you?

Yeah, I mean, well, first of all, the point that you make that it’s only in Devarim, but that it repeats itself in Devarim, is really important and interesting.

Which means that in the Book of Devarim, Moshe, is trying to make a point to the people about commandments, about ritual, about law, that he wants to say it in the singular.

Somehow that we want to look at all of ritual, not as a plural, not sticking together, but as a singular in a way of sticking together and one whole.

So I think that point there is repeated eight times might be the most important point of all.

So another of those eight times does occur in our parsha, towards the end, the very end of our parsha.

In Deuteronomy 11:22, it says, If then you faithfully keep all this instruction, for if you keep all this commandment, that I commanded you, loving your God, walking in all God’s ways and holding fast to God.

So one other thing that I need to point out.

In both phrases that we’ve had, in both pisukim, in the first one, it says, kol ha-mitzvah asher anekhi mitzavcha hayom tishmerun la-asot.

You should observe to do, in this second verse, it says, et kol ha-mitzvah azot asher anekhi mitzave etchem la-asota.

So clearly, the commandment, and it could be an ideology, it could be a mission statement,

Note: “, loving your God, walking in all God’s ways and holding fast to God.” Certainly, sounds like a mission statement reminiscent of Micha 6:8 “what does the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love true loyalty, and to walk humbly with thy God?”

there’s clearly already, we’re starting to see, that the traditional concept of doing a mitzvah, just the word, doing a mitzvah, those two words go together, like a peanut butter and jelly.

You can’t have a mitzvah without action, and that we already see here, but we still have this challenge of, we’re used to many mitzvaot.

And here it’s talking about a single mitzvah, which of course begs the question, which mitzvah it is, if any.

In Onkelos, these are the Aramaic translations of the Torah.

It says, for if you truly guard this entire mitzvah that I am commanding you.

He doesn’t shy away…. From a single mitzvah

Tagum Yonasson says, for if you diligently keep every commandment.

So now already we’re starting to see a little nuance.

There’s an emphasis on a singular mitzvah, but it’s every, not all, but every, I would add the word, every individual commandment that I command you to do.

And as I said in the intro, what we’re really going to discuss tonight is a little bit of, I wouldn’t say the tension, but the parallel pathways of this corpus of mitzvot, this kind of full package of all the commandments, and then the importance of singular mitzvot.

What thinks you of that, Rabbi?

Number one, this combining activity, and then also this concept of focusing on both the individual and the whole.

I think that’s really good.

You know, lasot and lasotah are in the singular.

So, that’s interesting also.

Et kol ha mitzvah lasot.

Et kol ha mitzvah lasotah.

So, even the different verses, even the agreement within the posukim, seems to change from one to the other.

So, this tension is something that the Torah itself seems to be aware of.

This, you know, individual mitzvah verses, the whole and the idea of action.

I think all these things are something the Torah itself is playing out.

You’re not, you’re not reading it into the Torah.

The Torah itself is giving, is presenting this tension to me.

Well, again, I think that’s what we’re trying to do here.

And we’re, I must say, and I’ve said this at least one other time in the, in the, in the recent weeks (see just war and the lack of focus on the strange references to a “generation of warriors”), where we’re coming across a phrase, and I’m frankly surprised that not more of the modern critical commentaries who talk about how the Deuteronomy Code was so different and stuff like that, how they did not focus on Kol Hamitzvah.

It just seems to me to be highlighted.

It’s, it is unique.

And, you know, whether it was, it echoed something else that they found in other languages or codes, they’re just silent about it.

So I think for better or worse, I would say better, we are looking at it through the traditional commentaries.

And they seem to pick up on all the cues, as you say, but they’re kind of there.

In Deuteronomy 6: 25, so now we’re going back to the end of last week’s parsha.

It says, It will therefore be our merit before our God to observe faithfully this whole instruction as God has commanded us.

U’tstaka tehi yu lanu ki nishmor la’asot et kol ha’mitzvah hazot lefne ha’shem Elokeinu ka’asher tzivanu.

So here we have the same adding mitzvah along with not only la’asot but observing it, keeping it.

But there is this translation of U’zzedaka te’hiye lanu and it shall be to our merit.

Now, here’s something else that you and I both know in the traditional concept of a mitzvah.

There was always this sense of by the zchut, by the merit of a good deed, that these mitzvot had kind of a power to them.

You know, I’ll take something from the morning prayers where we read a piece of Torah, of Talmud.

It says, these are the things whose merit has no limit.

It talks about commandments whose value, whose merit that they give you, the zchut that they give you has no limitation.

There was this understanding, and this I did find in the more academic critical interpretations (see Deuteronomy 1-11 (Anchor Bible Series) by Moshe Weinfeld), that clearly the associated with that mitzvah, even this early on, was the kind of power, the kind of merit and brownie-points that one gets from doing a good deed.

But it’s fascinating, as you say, Rabbi, it’s all in these verses.

We are reading into it in light of Jewish history and interpretation, but it’s not that difficult to find hooks to hang it on.

Right, …… you know, sometimes we say we study the commentary, right?

But sometimes you read a Rashi and we try to understand what is Rashi mean.

But here we’re looking at the words of the verse, and the question is, what is the verse mean?

That’s different.

Okay, there are two different, you know, there are two different styles and two different ways of approaching it.

So that’s exciting.

So let’s go.

Let’s see what we can make out of all.

So before we start, I mean, you know, even the word Torah, if you look at the word, the way the word Torah is used, it’s not as though it was necessarily a Jewish word.

If you look in wisdom literature (see Proverbs: 1:8, it talks about Torah imechah, listening to the rules of your mother.

שְׁמַ֣ע בְּ֭נִי מוּסַ֣ר אָבִ֑יךָ וְאַל־תִּ֝טֹּ֗שׁ תּוֹרַ֥ת אִמֶּֽךָ׃

My son, heed the discipline of your father,
And do not forsake the instruction of your mother;

But nonetheless, after reading the whole Chumash, and I haven’t thought about it fully, but my guess is certainly after finishing Deuteronomy, you get a sense of there is a Torah.

Here we are witnessing this metamorphosis of a word mitzvah, which basically means a commandment, and it becomes A mitzvah.

It becomes or has all of that beautiful baggage that we have seen in it.

And we can’t talk about the corpus of Jewish mitzvot unless we talk about what everybody seems to know.

There were 613 commandments.

Where did that come from?

It really is, I think you’ll agree, Rabbi, an innocuous piece of Talmud in Makkot.

Rabbi Simlai taught, there were 613 mitzvot stated to Moshe in the Torah, consisting of 365 prohibitions corresponding to the number of days in the solar year, and 248 positive mitzvot corresponding to the numbers of a person’s limbs.

Rav Hamnuna said, What is the verse that alludes to this?

It is written, Moshe commanded us the Torah as an inheritance of the congregation of Jacob.

The word Torah in terms of numerical value, you know it’s my favorite concept of Gematria (sarcastically), is 611, the number of the mitzvot that were received and taught by Moses our teacher.

And then there are two mitzvot, “I am the Lord” and “you shall have no other gods” in the Ten Commandments.

The first two of the Ten Commandments, and we heard from the mouth of the Almighty himself…. BOOM, you get 613.

And Rabbi, this would be an innocuous Mishnah if it wasn’t for the fact that all of…

It’s so important to scholarship because they wrote books, Maimonides wrote a book, Ramban wrote a book, Sefer Hamitzvot.

They took this concept of 613 commandments so seriously that they felt the onus to actually qualify it and say, what were these 613 commandments?

My guess…

You know what’s fun?

What’s fun is that they don’t agree on which are the 613.

They just agree that the final number…

So, you know, I guess you have to make the case that maybe the tradition of Tarayag mitzvot 613 even preceded this Rabbi Simlai who gave a reason for it.

But I have to say, Rabbi, we always try to say what is unique about Judaism.

You know, it’s one thing to say you have a golden rule.

It’s another thing to say you have seven commandments that were given to Noah.

You can even talk about ten commandments.

But I doubt there’s another religion that says, we have 613 commandments.

I mean, it is kind of a crazy thing when you really think about it.

You can have a very robust religion without having a numerical, finite quantity of laws that were given.

It’s kind of strange.

Now, that is a super interesting question.

And that is whether there are any other cultures, ancient cultures that gave a number to the mitzvoth.

Now, of course, your point is that it’s a piece of Talmud.

The Torah doesn’t tell us that there are 613 mitzvoth.

Now, there might be 613 mitzvoth, but the Torah doesn’t tell us that.

So it’s it’s rabbinic then why did the rabbis feel a need to give us number of mitzvoth?

That’s a super interesting question.

What did they gain by giving it a number?

And it’s not even an even number, you know?

You could say a hundred, six hundred.

So the Mishnah in Makkot, same tractate, Rabbi Ḥananya ben Akashya says, The Holy One, blessed be he, sought to confer merit upon the Jewish people.

Therefore he increased for them Torah and mitzvoth, as each mitzvah increases merit, as it is stated.

It pleased the Lord for the sake of his righteousness to make the Torah great and glorious.

God sought to make the Torah great and glorious.

So there seems to be, again, we’ve already referenced it before, this concept of Lezakot et Yisrael, this concept of the Zakhut that one gets from doing a good deed and quantifying it.

It already comes through in the Mishnah, but what brings it home and puts it into context is Maimonides, a rationalist with a big R, his commentary on this Mishnah.

And he says: It is among the fundamental principles of the Torah that when an individual fulfills one of the 613 commandments in a fit and proper manner, not combining with it any aspect of worldly intent, but rather doing it for its own sake, out of love, then they merit the world to come through this single act.

This is what Rabbi Ḥananya meant.

Being that the Holy One gave us so many commandments, it is impossible that in a life time, one does not do a single one in a full and proper manner.

And in doing so, their soul will live through that act.

When When R’ Hananya ben Tradiyon’s asked, Will I merit to live a life in the coming world and receive the response, Have you ever done anything?

This also indicating the same principle.

The answer he received meant, Have you ever had the chance to do one of the commandments properly?

His answer was that he once had the chance to give Tzedekah in a wholehearted fashion as much as is possible.

And it was through this that he merited to life in the world to come.

Rabbi, if I had not told you who wrote this, you would have guessed a Hasidic master.

Am I wrong?

No, you’re 100% right.

It’s so surprising, but that’s the point, that the idea of the merit of doing the mitzvah.

What does it do for us?

And this is, of course, the idea of God’s ledger in heaven and the idea that after 120 years, we all go and God reads our own personal ledger.

How many mitzvah did we observe and how many mitzvah did we buy?

So, it really does, in this Rambam, it really does kind of reflect, first of all, he clearly is talking about that single commandment done at the right time, in the right place, with the right intentionality.

And that we have these opportunities because we have so many of these commandments.

He is focused on the one from the many, but you really do get this sense of the corpus and the completion of all of them, and then the single one in the single moment.

You know, there’s this beautiful expression that says, יש קונה עולמו בשע אחד ויש קונה עולמו בכמה שנים.

That there are those who find redemption in one moment, in one hour.

It happens to be talking about the executioner of one of the ten martyrs who was the non-Jewish executioner, a Roman executioner, who increased the fire to put him out of his pain.

He got the merit of the world to come in a single moment.

And there are those of us who struggle our whole life.

There is this duality.

There are these multiple pathways.

But you really have to agree this Maimonides is just very, very impressive.

I really, I kind of this concept of the right mitzvah at the right time, at the right moment is one that really resonates and appeals to me.

And so, I was looking for who voiced that thread in our tradition.

And I was so surprised to find it in the voice of Maimonides, I have to say.

That’s great, I mean, you know that Maimonides is able in these kinds of things to be able to voice this, to be able to identify these kinds of fundamental tenets within the tradition.

So it’s nice that Maimonides says it and I’m not so surprised.

Well good for you.

And of course, it leaves open the question, when I say that you do a commandment perfectly once, what do you do with the rest of your life?

Note: it raises the “pick & choose” your mitzvah question….

It leaves open the question that, and that’s why I say, it almost, if I had closed my eyes, I would have thought that it was the Baal Shem Tov, it was a Hasid, because clearly, they were talking to a downtrodden people who had very limited options to explore their spirituality and to do everything in the fullness of the spirit and the intent, because they were struggling to stay above water.

And it already, when I say there’s a duality between the person who gets the world to come after many years, what you’re thinking in your mind is someone who’s consistent.

My son Charles is listening (as we record on Clubhouse) and at his Bar Mitzvah.

The Rabbi talked about consistency, and he talked about a baseball player that was known, he showed up for every game, and there is a place for that.

And then there’s a place for the person who finds his moment in the right space, in the right time.

And you have it all here.

I just absolutely, absolutely love it.

So let’s go.

That is actually great.

It’s great.

You talk about the sermon comparing Cal Ripken to the Roman executioner Rabbi Ḥanina ben Teradyon.

That’s a good Yom Kippur sermon.

Okay.

You got it.

You heard it first on Madlik.

So let’s start looking a little bit at the interpretations, the rabbinic interpretations of our verse.

So Rashi on Deuteronomy 8.1, Kol HaMitzvah, explained this every commandment.

He says it’s a Midrashic explanation.

Taking it to mean the whole (kol) of the commandment shall you be heedful to do.

If thou has once made a beginning with a meritorious deed, carry it out to the end because it bears the name only of him who has completed it.

And he gives an example of the bones of Joseph that (on his deathbed) is promised to Joseph that he would be redeemed.

And Moses gets credit for it because he completed the Mitzvah.

So here the focus is on Mitzvah as a complete act.

Mitzvah as (kol-all) the Mitzvah.

It’s based on the Midrash Tanhumah, all the commandment.

If you have begun with a commandment, finish all of it.

Why?

Rabbi Yochanan said, anyone who begins with a commandment and afterward another one comes and finishes it, it will be called according to the name of the one who finishes it.

So maybe he’s just talking in terms of how that works when you start a bill in Congress.

The guy who gets the credit is the guy who passes it maybe.

But clearly, we’re starting to focus on how you do that commandment.

It continues.

Rabbi Yochanan said, anyone who learns Torah but does not fulfill it, it is better for him to have his placenta roll over his face.

So now we’re getting into this tension between consistency and the spirit of the moment.

Rabbi Yochanan certainly reads into this concept of finishing what you started, that you have to be consistent.

You have to complete (all of) it.

And that’s what they read into this word (kol) Ha-Mitzvah.

The other commentaries, and of course I said eight times it says (Kol) Ha-Mitzvah.

Many of the commentaries look, put it into context.

So in our particular verses, they’re about to move into the Land of Israel.

It’s the Mitzvah of going into the land of Israel, or they’re getting promised all sorts of good things if they keep the laws and they reject the idol worship of the Canaanites.

That is the Mitzvah.

You can see how difficult it is for them to talk about something in the abstract as just The Mitzvah.

They have to talk about, no, we got to talk about which Mitzvah they’re doing.

So, the Rabbeinu Bechayah says, Kol ha-Mitzvah asher anachim etzavcha hayom, the whole (set), says the translator of commandments, which I command you this day, the placing and opposition of the word Kol ha-Mitzvah to the paragraph teaching us how we are to relate to paganism, is meant to convey that he who takes the instructions of the previous chapter to heart, which talks about going into the land and destroying the idols, is considered as if he had fulfilled Kol ha-Mitzvah.

And then he quotes the sages.

She kol, hakofer b’avodah zara, k’ilu kayem Kol ha-Mitzvah (the whole Torah in its entirety).

כל הכופר בע”ז כאילו מודה בכל התורה כלה

Our sages reinforce this when they said, anyone who denies paganism, it’s as if he had expressly acknowledged the whole Torah.

So now we’re getting into another framework that the rabbis came up with, which is that there are certain essential parts of our Torah that if you do them, it’s as though you admit to it all.

Fascinating concept as well and slightly different about than what we’ve been talking about.

Yeah, I mean, right, it kind of, it grows out of what we’ve been talking about, but you’re right, it’s not exactly the same thing.

That’s good, that’s good also.

I mean, all these ideas are, you know, just just highlight the importance of the observance of the mitzvah, right?

I mean, they’re just, they’re different ways of saying.

They are different saying and all of them kind of resonate.

There’s everything that is being said here, unlike sometimes when we look at different commentaries and we say, well, that makes sense, that doesn’t.

Here, they’re all kind of filling in the blanks.

The Rabbeinu Bachaya continues.

He says, we find the following comment in Dvarim Rabbah.

The words, kol haMitzvah, are to be understood as fulfill the commandment to its ninth degree completely.

So this concept of finishing the commandment, now we’re not talking about finishing it from A to Z, but doing it to the ninth degree.

The author means that if you have commenced to fulfill a certain commandment, make every effort to complete the commandment.

Do not content yourself with half measures.

So, this again is that focusing on a particular commandment.

You know, I mentioned the Baal Shem Tov a second ago.

There is this concept of being a Baal Tzedakah (master of charity), of being a Baal Teshuvah (master of repentance), of being, this means an owner, a master of a certain aspect of Judaism.

The rabbis, I will argue, in what they’re saying here, are recognizing that not everybody relates to every part of our tradition in the same way.

And that there are those, you know, we talk about the Choffetz Chaim.

He focused on how you speak, how you talk (lashon Hara).

There are masters of different things.

And I think, again, the argument that they’re making in terms of focusing on the singular commandment is one against the homogeneity of just make sure you dot all the i’s, cross all the t’s, and check all the boxes and come out to 613.

That’s great.

I’ll just say a little something about the Baal.

Notice, it’s Baal Teshuva, Baal Tzedaka, Baal Chesed.

You don’t have a Baal Shabbat.

You don’t have a Baal Kashrut.

Somehow mastery is in things that relate to kindness.

It’s not interesting not to ritual.

You’re not a master of ritual.

You do ritual, but you don’t have to own it.

I think the term they use it today is to own it.

You don’t have to own the ritual.

You just have to observe Shabbos, but you have to own being a good person.

So I totally agree with you, but again, you provide a wonderful segue into another strain of thought, which is for instance, in Devarim Raba, it says, quoting our verses, for you will observe the entire commandment.

What is the entire commandment?

Rabbi Leder said, this is the recitation of Shema.

The rabbi say, this is Shabbat, which is equivalent to all the mitzvot in the Torah.

Sh’kula k’neged kol ha-mitzvah Sh’b’torah.

הַשַּׁבָּת שֶׁהִיא שְׁקוּלָה כְּנֶגֶד כָּל הַמִּצְווֹת שֶׁבַּתּוֹרָה

So you’re right, Rabbi, there is no Baal Shabbat, but we all know that there are Shabbat Jews.

There are Jews that begin to say Shabbat Shalom on Wednesday.

There are Jews who start literally to prepare for Shabbat on Friday morning.

There are Rav Moshe Wolfson z’l, who passed away recently, the Mashgiach from Torah Vadaas Yeshivah, was a Shabbos Jew.

His life lit up on Shabbat.

So I agree with you, there’s no expression of that in terms of the Baal.

But again, this focus on saying the Shema is equal to everything.

The Shabbat is equal to everything.

I would argue that there is in our tradition room for everyone.

And that’s what ultimately was the takeaway from some of these expressions.

We’re starting to come to the end.

And the other interesting thing is how the rabbis took la’asot to do.

And they talk about in Dvarim Raba.

It says, how do you know that the mitzvot, the Torah is He chayim hem le’motze’hem.

That they are life for those who find them.

For one who completes them is a different reading.

From where is it derived?

It is derived from our verse, all the mitzvah.

What is all the mitzvah?

It is until you complete all the mitzvot, and an elixir for your bones, the 248 limbs that you have, this is for the mitzvah.

So in support of the original piece of Talmud that we studied that talks about the positive commandments relate to the parts of the body, here you see the rabbis trying to connect it with this connective tissue, if you forgive the pun.

They saw this connection between the action and our bodies and who we are.

Just kind of, you know, it’s wonderful the way they took this phrase and developed it, and really it’s become part and parcel of our Jewish tradition.

Yeah, it’s really, I mean, all of these things are fantastic.

And I mean, and the fact that we started with Kol Hamitzvah is you see that all of this comes from the words of the Book of Deuteronomy.

This is what, in a sense, this is what Moshe wanted when he used this phrase kol Hamitzvah.

He wanted us to talk about it and to analyze it and to appreciate what it means.

And like we said at the beginning, lasot and lasotah, it’s the connection of action together with acceptance, right?

It’s nashe v’nishma.

I mean, really it goes back to the beginning of the Torah.

And it’s nashe v’nishma.

It’s we will do and we will listen.

If you don’t do, the listening is not working.

Amazing.

So I’m going to end with one last thought.

If one ever looks at a traditional siddur, before one does a commandment, before one puts on the tzitzit, before one puts on tefillin, there are many times a kavanah, an intonation.

And in the intonation, it asks,

וּתְ֒הֵא חֲשׁוּבָה מִצְוַת צִיצִית לִפְנֵי הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא, כְּאִלּוּ קִיַּמְתִּֽיהָ בְּכָל פְּרָטֶֽיהָ, וְדִקְדּוּקֶֽיהָ, וְכַוָּנוֹתֶֽיהָ, וְתַרְיַ”ג מִצְווֹת הַתְּ֒לוּיוֹת בָּהּ, אָמֵן סֶֽלָה

That when you do a commandment, you want to do it in all of its details, all of its minutia, all of its intentions, and the 613 commandments that are dependent upon it.

The rabbis found a way of connecting the two, and what they basically said, that is, in every single commandment are all of the commandments.

(Kol) Ha-Mitzvah was inclusive of Ha-Mitzvot.

And there is a Sefat Emmet that I reference in the source sheet, where he says, all the commandment implies extracting maximum gain from a mitzvah by accessing its inner energy.

He says, you shall hear my commandment suggest mitzvot produce a sound.

Each mitzvah is connected to a specific limb and reminds a person to perform it.

I mean, there is some beautiful poetic stuff.

But, you know, for those of us who have favorite mitzvot, I have the Sukkah, I have learning Torah, I have to admit, tzitzit, I like, I mean, it’s special when you have those relationships.

And your children and your grandchildren should know what your proclivities are, where you emphasize your interests, because that is where you get to provide a little bit of expression of who you are vis a vis the commandments, which I think makes it, it’s a question of ownership.

Fantastic.

This was a great topic.

Shabbat shalom, everybody.

Enjoy our Shat Eikev.

And we look forward next week to studying our Shat Re’eh.

Shabbat shalom.

Shabbat shalom.

And I think we might do a lunch and learn because I have an event on Thursday night.

I’m getting away next weekend too.

So we’ll do a lunch and learn next week.