DEUT504 As far as this life is concerned, Ben 'Azzai states succinctly: "The reward of a precept is a precept and the punishment of a transgression is a transgression." Abot 4:21; see also Abot R. Nathan A 25; B 33. The real compensation for either good or evil is in the acts themselves. Good leads to more good, and evil is trailed by evil. Rabbi Elazar comments on Psalm 112:1, "'Happy is the man who feareth the Lord, that delights greatly in His commandments,' i.e., who delights in His commandments themselves and not in the reward of His commandments." Ab. Z. 19a. The Sifre comments on (this verse), "Lest you say I shall study Torah in order that I may become rich, that I may be called Rabbi or that I may be rewarded in the hereafter, Scripture specifies 'to love the Lord your God'; whatever you do, do from love." 122 R. Eleazar b. Zadok taught: "Do things for the sake of doing them; engage in them for their own sake."
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