Q&A: One Who Fulfills a Commandment
One Who Fulfills a Commandment
Question
You say, following Maimonides (Laws of Kings 8:11), that someone who fulfills a commandment because of rational judgment and not because the Holy One commanded it did indeed do a good deed, but did not perform a commandment.
And on the other hand, you write (at the beginning of Moves Among the Standing) that every commandment contains two elements: command and essence.
So why not say that the person above did not perform the commandment properly in its full sense, but still in practice fulfilled the essence of the commandment?
And in general, it seems very reasonable to say that the Holy One does not care why I fulfill the commandment (whether because of the command or because of rational judgment), so long as I fulfill it and its purpose is realized in the world, the Holy One should count it for me as a commandment. What difference does it make—to Him especially—why I fulfill it?
Answer
To realize the essence without obeying the command is not called a commandment.
Therefore, what is learned from reason is not Torah-level law like a commandment, unless the reasoning is interpreting an existing command. Reasoning that generates a command anew (such as the blessing before Grace after Meals) is not Torah-level in this sense. On the Torah level, the person who recites the blessing is a good person, but not a person who fulfilled a commandment. After the rabbis instituted it, there is a rabbinic commandment here.
The Holy One does want us to fulfill the commandments out of commitment to the command and not only through the act itself. If He wanted only the result, He could have refrained from creating us with free choice and programmed us to act as He wanted. In fact, He could have done everything Himself. Search the site for “Perfection and Perfecting” and “Divine Service as a Need Above.”