Q&A: Performing a Commandment / Avoiding a Sin Not Because of a Command
Performing a Commandment / Avoiding a Sin Not Because of a Command
Question
I happened to speak with someone who stopped working on the Sabbath because of his closeness to the neighborhood rabbi (not because he started keeping commandments—he still doesn’t believe—but because he feels uncomfortable in front of the rabbi). Something about that reason bothered me a bit, and I thought that maybe it has no value, because that person isn’t doing it because he is commanded, but because he feels uncomfortable in front of a certain person. But a few friends told me I was exaggerating, and that of course there is value in a commandment / avoiding a sin that a Jew does even if it is not because of a command (they gave as an example Chabad’s tefillin-laying project).
What does the Rabbi think? Does such an act actually have value?
Thank you very much
Answer
It does not have much value. It is possible that refraining from a transgression has value in itself even without awareness and commitment (because of the spiritual consequences), but intuitively that does not seem right to me. A commandment is a commandment only when it is done out of being commanded. As for positive commandments, it is obvious that they have no value at all unless they are done Out of commitment. See my article about causing a secular Jew to stumble into transgression.
The proof from Chabad is really puzzling. What proof is there from the fact that they do it? Are they lacking foolish things that they do?
By the way, I mentioned here in the past a dispute between Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner and the Lubavitcher Rebbe about the value of putting tefillin on people in the street.