Q&A: Levels in the Service of God
Levels in the Service of God
Question
Hello Rabbi,
I heard your lecture on Torah and commandments.
There you explain that the first level, the necessary, basic level of serving God (observing Torah and commandments) is the one that stems purely from God’s command itself. The choice to fulfill the commandment out of commitment, with no calculation of gain or loss attached to it.
On the other hand, you go on to explain that a higher level is fulfilling the commandment out of “love or fear,” which according to your explanation means considerations of benefit or various kinds of gain (“not for its own sake”).
As I understand it, the order ought to be the opposite. In other words, a person who fulfills the commandment because of considerations of benefit (livelihood, security, a relationship, etc.) is serving himself, not God.
Whereas a person who chooses to serve God only out of pure commitment is the one who fulfills the commandment for its own sake, because the reward of a commandment is the commandment itself.
If so, does the concept of “love or fear” (I would emphasize love דווקא as opposed to fear) not refer specifically to a higher spiritual level / more exalted insight that has nothing at all to do with considerations of benefit or gain?
Otherwise I can’t understand the order of importance you pointed to…
Thank you
Answer
Hello Erez.
When I say benefit, I do not mean self-interest, but values such as love of God and fear of God. My claim is that fulfilling commandments in order to attain love or fear is also not fulfillment for its own sake. Only fulfilling them as an independent value is fulfillment for its own sake. I inferred this precisely from the words of Maimonides in Laws of Idolatry 3:6, where he explains that one who worships idols out of love or fear is exempt. Only one who worships out of acceptance of a divinity is liable. And the same applies to the service of God (“God made one corresponding to the other”). And this is how the author of Nefesh HaChaim explains at the beginning of Gate 4 the obligation to study Torah for its own sake (following the Rosh on Nedarim: “Perform deeds for the sake of their Maker, and speak of them for their own sake” — for the sake of Torah). See the beginning of chapter 10 of Maimonides’ Laws of Repentance (although there he defines love this way, he means a different concept of love there, an intellectual one).
Beyond this distinction, there is also the distinction of Tosafot, which differentiates between two kinds of study not for its own sake: study in order to provoke, and study for the sake of honor or money. The two levels I listed here are above Tosafot’s two levels.
Discussion on Answer
I didn’t rank it that way. The opposite: that is the highest level. What I argued is that there is also room for service out of love and fear, except that these are on higher stories built above it. That is, the most basic level is commitment, and on top of it one should add love and fear. Commitment without love and fear (level A without B) is service for its own sake, but not a complete one. Service out of love and fear (level B without level A) is not for its own sake.
Hello Rabbi,
I got a bit confused… If so, I can’t understand why in the lecture you ranked serving God out of commitment in the lowest place, lower than service done out of the motivation of serving from fear or love.
Isn’t service motivated by pure command itself a more “mature” kind of recognition/understanding, after the acquisition of “habit” (which comes at the stage of “not for its own sake”)?
Best regards,