EXOD212 When Torah learning and mitzvot are in conflict and only one may be fulfilled, the performance of the mitzvah takes precedence over the learning of Torah. Maimonides, Hilchot Talmud Torah 3:4. The Mishnah Avot 1:17 informs us that the main goal in life should be the action, the performance of mitzvot, and not the learning of Torah. While it is true that the Torah learning is the means that brings one to proper action, mitzvot, Kiddushin 40b the Jew's purpose in the world is the performance, not merely the learning. A person who only learns Torah, without the performance of mitzvot, is compared to a person without a God. Avodah Zara 17b. Thus, of all the paths to God, the performance of mitzvot is primary. This is reflected in [this verse]. How does the Jew beautify God? By performing mitzvot in a beautiful manner, such as by using a beautiful shofar, lulav, and so forth. Shabbat 133b

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EXOD216 See [[EXOD15]] Exodus 1:17 feared AHAVCH 25

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EXOD213 "Abba Saul said that the verse, 'This is my God and anvehu, I will glorify him' [this verse] should read, 'This is my God and ani ve-hu," I and He,' teaching that 'I am to be like God.' As God is gracious and compassionate, so I should be gracious and compassionate" (Shab. 133b). "The prophets regularly remind God: 'Just as a father has mercy on his children ... so must You have mercy on the sinners of Your people Israel'" (Exod. R. 46.4). "Consider how plentiful are the mercies of the Holy One for the people of Israel... For when God sees the sufferings that the wicked wreak on the righteous, he weeps into His folded arms" (Tanna debe Eliyahu, E.R. chap 17, p. 87).

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EXOD214 Abba Saul, who is the first to use the words "Imitate the King," [Sifra, Kedoshim], interprets the words of [this verse] (veanvehu-ani vahu, i.e., I, man and He, God), as meaning: "Be like Him." As He is merciful and gracious so be thou merciful and gracious" [Mekiltah, Beshalah, 3; Jer. Peah 1:1; Sab. 133b] Similarly, the command "to walk in His ways" (Deuteronomy 10:12) is explained as following the thirteen attributes of God. Sifre, Ekeb, 49; see also Genesis R. 58:9. R. Hama b. Hanina comments on Deut. 13:5, "after the Lord your God ye shall walk": How can man walk after Him who is said to be "a devouring fire"? The verse must be taken to mean that man should pattern his life after the Divine attributes. Like Him he must clothe the naked, visit the sick, comfort the mourners, and bury the dead. Lev. R., Behukkotai, 6.

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EXOD215 Feed and clothe the needy with the best possible. The Talmud Shabbos 133b says in reference to this verse, "When you do God's mitzvot, glorify the mitzvah. Have a beautiful sukah, a beautiful lulav, a beautiful shofar, beautiful tzitzis, and a beautiful Torah scroll." We find the same concept in reference to charity. Rambam writes: "When you give food to a hungry person, give him your best and sweetest food. When you give a needy person clothes, give him your best clothes." (Hilchos Isurai Mizbaiach 7:11.)

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EXOD217 We must be compassionate and merciful. Abba Shaul commented on this verse: "Emulate Him. Just as God is compassionate and merciful, so too you should be compassionate and merciful." Shabbos 133b

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EXOD218 The true Jew not only obeys the letter of the law; he is anxious for the opportunity to do even more than the strict law demands of him. [The phrase coined by the Talmud is 'Simchah shel Mitzvah,' see Shabb. 31b; Ber. 33b]. "Fear of God" is the beginning of knowledge; the end of religious teaching is to love God and serve our fellow-man. It means to be conscious that we owe Him a debt of gratitude which we can never adequately repay. One of the ways in which we can express our gratitude is to find pleasure in the performance of the duties devolving upon us, as well as to be possessed of an implicit trust that all that happens to us is, in the long run, for the best. Filled with this belief, we can safely entrust ourselves to Him everywhere and all times, confident in His guidance, glorying in His salvation. Real faith, though it inspires resignation, does not mean a heartless indifference, a kind of "could not care less" attitude. It must be dynamic and ready to inspire heroism and self-sacrifice. "The Lord is a man of battle" [this verse]; so must a faith that is worthwhile be militant for its convictions. Especially courageous must faith be against evil inclinations, against the Yetser Ha'ra, placed in us in accordance with the Divine scheme of things as an essential constituent in human nature without which the march of civilization, chequered as it is, would be impossible.

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EXOD220 Whoever makes a multitude meritorious, no sin shall come through him; but whoever brings a multitude to sin will not be given the means to achieve repentance. Pirkei Avot, Perek V, mishnah 21. "R. Simeon says: How do we know that if one misleads another into sin, it is worse than if he killed him? If someone killed this man, he would remove him only from this world, but the man would receive a share in the world-to-come. The one who misleads him into sin kills him off in both this realm of existence and the world-to-come." Moral corruption, dry rot in the soul, is a destructive ill that lasts beyond physical death. Obviously the "Mephistopheles" behind it can never make amends on this earth. "Two nations (R. Simeon continues) met the Israelites with the sword: the Egyptians and Edomites. Of Egypt we read, [this verse]. Of the Edomites, And Edom said to him [Moses], You shall not pass through me, lest I come out with the sword against you. (Numbers 20:18). And two nations met the Israelites with transgression: the people of Emon and Moab"--for as the Midrash recounts, they prepared a vast number of young women at Shittim to entice the Israelites into immorality and idol-worship, and as a result, 24,000 Israelites died at Heaven's hand. (Numbers 25:1-3,9) "About those who came with the sword (R. Simeon concludes) it is written, 'You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother; you shall not abhor an Egyptian, because you were an alien sojourner in his land. The children of the third generation that are born to them may enter the assembly of the Lord.' But as for those who came bringing transgression--No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the Lord... for ever." (Deuteronomy 23:8-9, 4) If people threaten or attack us physically, we can come to terms with them, live with them, and ultimately accept them. But those who would cajole us into filthy sin and depravity, seek to infect us with the rightness at their core. We want no part of them, ever.

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EXOD221 Some Jewish thinkers emphasize the general sense of yirat ha-El as sufficient reason for avoiding sin. "Antigonus of Sokho used to say: Be like servants who serve the master without the expectation of receiving a reward, and let the fear of God simply bring you to it" (Avot 1.3). R. Joshua b. Levi interprets the verse from Psalms: "Happy is the one who fears God" (112:1) to mean: "Happy is the one who can master the evil inclination, as God meant for human beings to do" (Avodah Zara 19a). As the fourteenth century Rabbi of Toledo, Judah Asheri said: Keep your mind open to whatever may remind you of the fear of Heaven; be not diverted by the jibes of others, nor by your own lust" (Hebrew Ethical Wills). The fifteenth century philosopher Joseph Albo tells us:"The fear of God is not the fear of a human being. If one is in fear of an [earthly] ruler, one is in constant terror and dread, which shortens one's life, whereas fearing God prolongs it.... He who is happy is he who fears God, for this fear does not lead to timidity but to might, so that his seed shall be mighty on earth" (Sefer Haikkarim [The book of principles]). In the sixteenth century Italian sage Ovadia Sforno teachers: "Anyone who knows how greatly God ought to be praised will fear God because of this, rather than because of any punishment God may visit on us" (commentary on [this verse], in Mikraot Gedolot).

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EXOD222 Doing chesed hastens redemption. The Chofetz Chayim cites the Pesikta which explains that "You have led in Your chesed" refers to the merit of the chesed which the Jewish people practiced toward one another. "You have guided them in Your strength" refers to the study of the traditions handed down from the forefathers. This is in accordance with the statement in Tana D'vai Eliyahu (ch. 23) that when the Jewish people were in Egypt, they gathered together and made a pact that they would do chesed for each other; they would keep the covenant of Abraham, Yizchok, and Yaakov; they would serve their Father alone, and they would not forsake the language of their father Yaakov. At that time the Jewish people were enslaved, and searched for a means to be saved from Pharaoh's decrees. They therefore resolved to do chesed to one another, and hoped that because of this merit God would bestow chesed upon them and redeem them from persecution. As we have seen from the Pesikta above, the merit of their chesed had the necessary effect. The Chofetz Chayim added that this is a lesson for all generations. By doing chesed, we help bring about redemption. (Ahavas Chesed, ch. 5).

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