Q&A: One Who Is Engaged in a Commandment Is Exempt from Another Commandment
One Who Is Engaged in a Commandment Is Exempt from Another Commandment
Question
Rabbi Michi, hello!
In the Talmudic passage about one who is engaged in a commandment being exempt from another commandment, in tractate Sukkah 25b, the Talmud explains that this is learned both from the commandment of reciting the Shema and from the commandment of the Passover offering, and it argues that it has to be learned from both. For example, from the Passover offering we learn that it is permitted to bury a neglected corpse even at the cost of neglecting the commandment of the Passover offering, for neglecting which one is liable to karet. My question is simple: why? Why fulfill a commandment with a lighter punishment and neglect a more important commandment? What is the logic?
Answer
It seems to me that the reason is that when some commandment comes your way, you need to involve yourself in it and forget about everything else. No other calculations. It is a matter of focusing on what you are doing right now. It reminds me of a story about a Hasid of Rabbi Yitzhak of Vorki who, when his rabbi passed away, found himself in Kotzk, and they asked him what had been the most important principle in the teaching of his late rabbi. He answered: whatever he was doing at that moment.
Discussion on Answer
Regarding what Rabbi Michi said, Rabbi Kook has a very similar idea in Musar Avikha on “In all your ways know Him.”
Recommended.
The Rebbe Maharashab, Hemshekh Ta'arav, part two, Sabbath of Parashat Devarim:
And likewise with the commandments: although they are particular wills, nevertheless each one of them is an aspect of the Essence, and they are all equal. Therefore, “Do not sit and weigh my commandments” and so on, for from the side of the divine will they are all equal, and so on. And one who is engaged in a commandment is exempt from another commandment because the commandment contains everything, including the other commandment, and he also receives the reward of that commandment as well, as explained elsewhere. Even so, all the commandments must be fulfilled because they are particular wills; but at any rate, at the time when he is engaged in a commandment and there is another commandment to do, he is exempt from the other commandment because it is included within the commandment in which he is engaged, and so on.