Q&A: A Role in the Service of God
A Role in the Service of God
Question
It is commonly said that each person has his own role in the service of God: one person’s role is to study, another’s role is to teach, another’s role is to work, and so on. Do you agree with that assumption? And if so, will someone whose role is more elevated receive greater reward, or is everything tied to effort? If I work hard enough and do the maximum within my role, can I receive reward like Abraham our forefather? And if not—isn’t that unfair? And how can one know what his role is, and make sure he isn’t being subjective by choosing an easier role?
Answer
I have no idea. I don’t really understand what a “role” that a person has is supposed to mean. Within the constraints of serving God, a person chooses his own path. The role is what he takes upon himself. As for calculations of reward, I’m not worthy to speak about that.
Discussion on Answer
In terms of effort, it’s the same. In terms of results, there may be differences. If you value study more than giving charity, then there will be a difference in the results.
Along these lines, see column 372 on the difference between evaluating a person according to his own outlook and evaluating the objective result (according to your outlook).
I think a general evaluation of a person is neither useful nor well-defined. There are different aspects, and each one is judged on its own. It’s like asking whether you value soccer or basketball more, Kodashim or Taharot, physics or mathematics, history or shoemaking.
Maimonides says about the commandment of charity that one must be more careful with it than with any other positive commandment in the Torah.
Seemingly that means it is above studying all day.
So is there “be killed rather than transgress” regarding charity? And maybe karet for someone who refrains from giving? These are arguments that take a manner of expression far too seriously. Like all the commandments about which it is said that they are equivalent to the entire Torah (six of them in Rabbi Wolbe’s booklet), which of course cannot be true logically.
Thank you very much.
I read column 372 as you directed me, and it raised a difficulty for me: does the Holy One, blessed be He, expect from him the object-level act as well, or only the person-level intention? That is, suppose a person believes absolutely that one should desecrate the Sabbath in order to create a secular public character (theoretically). If he keeps the Sabbath once because of some external interest, will he get Gehenna for that, or when he desecrates the Sabbath will he get reward for that? And even if you don’t want to get into discussions about reward in Heaven, is he closer to the Holy One, blessed be He?
Or does closeness to the Holy One, blessed be He, also require the object-level reality of actions that bring one closer to the good?
Of course I’m speaking about a case where there is no claim against his mode of judgment, such as a tinok shenishba.
As I said, I have no idea what the Holy One, blessed be He, expects. A tinok shenishba should not receive Gehenna in any case, no matter what he does. But he also won’t receive reward for anything (not for commandments; maybe for morality). If he believes in something and does it, then he is a good person on the personal level, even if not necessarily on the object level. And again, it doesn’t matter what he does.
Thank you. In any case, I’ll try to ask a bit differently: a person who finds it hard to sit and study all day, so he works and studies Daf Yomi, and with his money he gives charity—he’s simply doing the best he can—versus a person who can sit and study for hours, and he is talented and reaches real knowledge of Torah, and he too does the best he can: which person do you value more? And should I aspire to become like the second person? Seemingly, both are doing the best they can.