What do you want out of life? A question we so often wonder about. Where will we be in 5, 10 or 20 years? Wealthy? Happy? Powerful? Have a happy family? The old saying goes 'eat drink and be merry for tomorrow...' and I'll leave the rest out.
Perhaps a fairly agreed-upon goal many of us have would be pleasure. Simply to get pleasure out of the time we have on this earth. Quite fair I must say.
Judaism too is about making the most of life. It's about taking everything we have and do, and transforming it from an end to a means. To make everything serve a higher, more fulfilling, holy purpose. If all we do is geared towards helping others, making the world a better place and a pleasant place for G‑d to dwell, our actions are elevated from small deeds to timeless changes for the better. The one who gains the most out of giving, is the giver. But is this selfless dedication something which enhances our own personal lives as well?
In this week's Torah portion we read of a man named Korach. Korach believed that life was about dryly following the Torah's instructions, never appreciating, enjoying or internalizing much. Being completely enveloped in serving G‑d with no personal gain. He therefore rebelled against Moses and the Jewish leadership who were primarily occupied with assuring that every Jew had a personal, warm connection to the Judaism he or she practiced. That precisely through serving G‑d, the Jew would be the very best and happiest that he or she could be. Korach saw this as completely unnecessary.
There is much merit to such an outlook. It demands discipline, focus and dedication to follow God's handbook for the world he created without ever deviating. Selfless dedication. To be able to stick to one's principles, come what may, is a priceless character trait.
What Korach failed to understand is that the Torah was given to us for us. For us, human beings - flaws, egos, petty hangups and all - to be able to have a deep personal relationship with our creator. It's a dream come true.
Yes, the Torah is about simply making our lives the best they could be. A life lived according to the Torah amd Mitzvot is infinitely more satisfying that those who live to eat drink and be merry. But in order for that to happen we do need to trust that he who created us knows whats best for us and follow his commandments with utter dedication.
We need to understand that the G‑d who tells us to not work on Shabbat, or any other of the commandments which might come across as inhibiting our lives, does so for one purpose and one purpose only: for our own good. But we need to follow his instructions happily and scrupulously.
So yes, let's do Mitzvot, learn Torah, eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow is another day.
Rabbi avrohom