"The Way of G-d"
Part 4: "Divine Service"
Ch. 1: "Serving G-d in General"
Paragraphs 1-3
What's a grateful soul to do after having been exposed to the very
underpinnings of the universe, and made privy to with G-d's will and
wishes, as we have? Serve Him in gratitude, and love Him in return for all
of His love. And that's exactly the point of this final part of "The Way
of G-d".
For it's here that we'll learn a lot of the things we're to do in the
course of an observant life, *and why we're to do them*. After all, while
some mitzvot are clear-cut and self-explanatory, others of them are rather
esoteric. For they touch more directly upon our relationship to G-d
Almighty, and they have more immediate bearing upon the subtle and
mystical underpinnings of the universe that we've been learning about all
along.
So we'll now explore the mitzvah-life with that in mind.
The first thing to be noted about it is the fact that there are two major
elements involved: study and actual practice. And while study can be
either ongoing or occasional, our practice can be ongoing (as when we love
and revere G-d, for example), it can also be time-bound and comprised of
things we do daily (like pray and recite the Sh'ma), periodically (like
observe Shabbat and Holy Days), or depending on circumstances (like
offering charity or marrying).
Lastly, some elements of the mitzvah-life are comprised of things we're to
do, while others are about things we're to avoid. We'll touch upon all of
this at length in this section.
Text Copyright © 2004 by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman and Torah.org.
