One of the major
foundation principles of the Chovos Halevovos is that we owe everything to
Hashem. The problem is that there is
nothing we can do for Him. The closest
we can get to doing something is to acknowledge that he has given us everything
and, as a consequence thereof, being makker tov to Hashem should be the focus
of our lives.
Our whole Avodas
Hashem, as per the Chovos Halevovos, is predicated on the concept of paying
back something of what we owe.
Rabbi Chaim
Malinowitz fleshes out the Chovos Halevovos and lets us hear a very big
chiddush in its name. To whit, if you
feel that Hashem has bestowed you with extra
tov you should feel obligated to pay back a little more by adding something to
your avoda, be it an extra twenty minutes of learning, a little more kavana in
davening, or perhaps resolving to put more effort into doing chesed.
The more you get
the more you give.
And we’re not
just talking gashmius here. The Chovos
Halevovos is telling us that our obligation to bump our avoda transcends the
obvious scenarios such as windfall profits from a big deal in the midst of a
recession, a big raise, or even a lottery winning.
If you are zoche
to live in Eretz Yisroel and/or to learn in kollel your debit with Hashem is
somewhat bigger than it otherwise might be.
Hashem placed
you in an area which has a Bais Yaakov high school in addition to a yeshiva
high school for boys, and therefore you don’t have to send your children out of
town to board? It matters not that
everyone in your town is in the same position as you. In relation to the thousands of Yidden living
in areas that have no choice but to dorm their kids far away from home, you are
the beneficiary of a little something extra.
How about the
fact that we live in a dor (generation) that has ready to eat food and ready to
wear clothes, not to mention the full gamut of modern conveniences such as refrigerators,
washing machines, cars, and the like? If
you wouldn’t want to live in 1870 then how do you express your appreciation
that you don’t?
The Chovos
Halevovos divides our Avodas Hashem into two distinct approaches. The goal of a
person in his life should be to discover Hashem on his own using his seichel. For a number of reasons it is not possible to
head straight for that goal so Hashem, in his great mercy, gave us rules
(mitzvahs) of the Torah in order to level the playing field so as to give us a
stepping stone or better yet, a jumping off point toward the higher level of
Avodas Hashem based on our seichel.
These rules of
the Torah train us to give thanks, by way of the mitzvahs, for everything
Hashem did/does for us (Pesach/our freedom, Birkas HaMazon/for what Hashem just
gave us to eat etc.).
Therefore, if
Hashem gives us more, we understand from the structure of the mitzvahs that we
are supposed to do more than we have heretofore done.
Or put another
way, if you feel blessed you should be putting a little more on the table.
