10.9.07

actio reactio

We have a principle about time-bound mitzwoth, that when the time is up, the mitzwah is lost, it is normally phrased:
עבר זמנו בטל קרבנו
I would like to read it a little differently. When the time is up, then the proper way to perform the mitzwah is not to perform the mitzwah. (In this reading batel switches from an adjective to a verb)

According to this understanding, we are actually performing a mitzwah all the time we aren't supposed to be performing a mitzwah and aren't. By this logic, for example, we are mekayem the mitzwah of tefillin at night davka by not wearing tefillin, since it isn't the appropriate time. The only way to lose out on the mitzwah entirely would be to put on tefillin at night.

We find from this that Bnei Yisrael are each and everyone of them involved in many mitzwoth constantly.

Further, we also know that when one is involved in the active performance of a mitzwah, that we are free from the active performance of other mitzwoth. In hebrew this is generally rendered:
עוסק במצוה פטור ממצוה
From this we can derive that whenever one is actively performing a single mitzwah, s/he is actually performing all the 613 mitzwoth at once, since performing a mitzwah places us in position to be mekayem all the other mitzwoth davka by not performing them.

Through all this perhaps we can understand how all Bnei Yisrael is full of mitzwoth like a pomegranate, and at the same time, the Baal Shem Tov's teaching that performing one mitzwah (b'prat) connects you to all the mitzwoth. (b'klal)


Shanah Tovah l'Yisrael b'phrat u'b'chlal, maleh metikut, areivut, shlaimut, u'beriut.

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