How to increase your reward for performing a commandment

Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto’s talks are known throughout the Jewish world. They combine chassidic teachings and philosophy, along with tips for a better life. We have collected pearls from his teachings that are relevant to our daily lives. This week he comments on the Torah section of  Ekev.

“And it will be, because [ekev] you will heed these ordinances and keep them and perform them” (Deut. 7:12)

Rashi explains that this passage refers to keeping the light commandments that a person considers as being of minor importance so he tends to step on them [ekev = “heel”]. What light commandments is he referring to that people treat lightly?

The Gemara brings an example: in the city of the codifier of the Yerushalmi Talmud, Rabbi Yochanan, there lived a widow who would walk a great distance to pray in Rabbi Yochanan's synagogue. Rabbi Yochanan asked the widow why she came all the way to his study hall to pray since she had a synagogue in her neighborhood that was closer to her home. The widow replied that walking the long distance to his study hall gave her a greater reward for walking, and she wants God to give her this reward.

We see that one gets a greater reward for walking a long way to do a commandment, but why is that? If a person has a synagogue near his home or a synagogue far away, where is it better for him to pray? In the synagogue close to his home or a distant synagogue where he will also get a reward for the long walk?

The first thing to consider is that if there is a synagogue where a righteous man prays, it is better to pray there, because the righteous individual influences the synagogue goers to be better and holier. This is why Chana went to pray in the proximity of Eli the high priest and this is why it is spiritually empowering to pray next to a righteous or a God-fearing person. The righteous person affects all the people around him and energizes their prayers and helps them to be accepted by God. But if there is no righteous person in the two synagogues, the Magen Avraham (Orach Chaim 90:11) says that it is better to go to the far synagogue because then one will get an added reward for every step that he takes.

What about the situation where a person prays in a far away synagogue and it takes him a long time to arrive so he is never among the first ten men who arrive, whereas if he goes to a nearby synagogue, he will arrive faster and will be among the first ten. Which is better?

Imagine the situation when a person has two synagogues - one close and the other far away - and both set the time for prayers at the same time. To be among the first ten in the nearby synagogue, he must leave his house only a few minutes before the beginning of the prayer, while he must leave at least an hour before the start of the prayer in order to arrive on time to the distant synagogue. Our rabbis say that it is better for him to go to the distant synagogue and get reward for all the steps he takes even if he will not be one of the first to arrive at the synagogue and will only arrive in time to begin with the others. Our rabbis say that in fact, he gains the status of those who arise early with alacrity [zerizim l’mitzvot] from the moment he began walking and getting ready for the synagogue - even though in fact he did not arrive early.

The gist of the matter is that everything related to doing a commandment, including walking a long way to do it, is considered part of the commandment itself. If he got up early and went to the mikvah, if he went to a distant synagogue and made others preparations, everything is considered as him performing the commandment with alacrity. This is true of one who toils and puts forth effort and dedicates himself to a certain commandment. The Almighty will give him a reward just for his efforts involved apart from his fulfilling the commandment.

The important lesson to take from this is that when a person makes an effort and toils to fulfill a commandment, even if it is far away and the person has not yet achieved it, he receives a great reward for the very effort he expended to do it. Although a person is not commanded to go to a synagogue that is an hour's walk away, he will receive reward for it.

According to this, it is possible to understand, "And it will be, because [ekev] you will heed" - the word ekev has a numerological value of 172. There are 172 words in the Ten Commandments. Moses pushed off the Giving of the Torah for one day and instead of getting the Torah on 6 Sivan, the Israelites received it on 7 Sivan. Since they had labored and strived in preparation for the event, God gave them a reward just the same as if there was no delay.

It is possible to say the same about the light commandments that a person treats as unimportant. The person who goes on the way to a distant synagogue is achieving something. He receives a reward in This World for those commandments that he is not obligated to perform. The power of these commandments is especially great and they confer on the person the status of one who acts with alacrity, as if he was the first to arrive at the synagogue. From the first moment he got up and began to toil for the commandment, he already receives a reward for it as if he had already performed everything related to the commandment.

The very toil and effort a person expends to do a commandment, gives him a reward as if he had already fulfilled the commandment. We should engrave this principle upon our hearts and set it as a model to follow.

This article was written in cooperation with Shuva Israel