DEUT828 The question is raised whether there is greater virtue in one who enjoys the activity which the commandment imposes than in one who fulfills the commandment even though he does not get any pleasure in the doing of it. Some commandments cannot possibly be performed with joy, such as the burial of the dead. There are other commandments whose very essence is that they be performed with joy, such as the celebration of the festivals and observance of the Sabbath (this verse, Deuteronomy 16:14; Isa. 58:13). The rabbinic consensus is that the "commandments were not given us for our enjoyment" (Eruvin 31a). Hence, whether one derives pleasure from the activity prescribed by the commandment is a secondary consequence. This maxim of the Rabbis has legal implications which do not concern us here. The injunction to "serve God with joy" (Ps. 100:2) and the rabbinic concept of Simha shel mitzvah, the joy that should accompany the performance of the mitzvah, should be associated primarily with the joy that derives from the consciousness that one is serving God, and only secondarily from the joy which may inhere in the act itself. Hence, the performance of a mitzvah merely because one enjoys doing it, should not be classified as a religiously motivated act.