ספר בראשית

"A river comes out of Eden to irrigate the garden;” compare on Avot 2,1 ‎הוי זהיר במצוה קלה ‏כבחמורה‎, “be as meticulous concerning the performance of commandments deemed as ‎inconsequential, as you are with the performance of commandments deemed of great ‎significance, since you do not know the amount of reward in store for any of the commandments.” ‎Our sages explained that the author of this saying referred to the amount of satisfaction that the ‎performance of each commandment gives to the Creator. We mortals have no way of gauging ‎what ranks high in the esteem of the lawgiver. The only thing that we know definitely about this is ‎that as a result of the satisfaction that G’d derived from our mitzvah performance He will ‎give us opportunities to perform more commandments. When a father hears words of wisdom ‎from his son, he encourages him to come up with more wise comments. Similarly, when G’d ‎derived pleasure and satisfaction from the deeds of one of His “children,” He encourages that ‎‎“child” to continue to come up with intelligent questions and answers.<‎br>‎Eden, this describes the pleasure derived by G’d from His children’s words of Torah and ‎performance of His commandments, whereas the word ‎גן‎, “garden,” is a reference to the various ‎levels at which Torah can be studied, i.e. just as a garden contains many flowers, each of which ‎having a distinct appearance and pleasing aroma. The words of Torah His children speak by means ‎of which they provide spiritual irrigation in all the four directions of the earth, are alluded to by: ‎‎“the river splitting into four heads,” in our verse.‎Performance of the commandments is perceived as “irrigating” the brain (cranium) that consists of ‎‎4 cavities, one of them being a cavity divided into two parts. This “stream” channels this inspiration ‎directly from G’d, and branches out into 4 “rivers,” each channeling inspiration to the four lobes of ‎the brain that fill these cavities. Each branch feeds the appropriate lobe, according to its function. ‎The word ‎עדן‎ describes the region from which ‎תענוג‎, pleasurable experiences emanate. The word ‎גן‎ in this allegory includes the various disciplines comprising Torah study, commonly known as ‎‎peshat, plain meaning of the text, drush, allegorical meaning, homily, remez, ‎allusion, hint, and sod, mystical aspects. Keeping this in mind, we can understand why the ‎‎mishnah quoted began with a warning, i.e. ‎הוי‎ ‎זהיר‎, “be careful to discern,” ‎seeing that the same mishnah told us that we do not know how the various ‎commandments rate in terms of the reward for those who perform them. Since we do not know, ‎how are we to distinguish between what is weighty, and what is relatively less weighty in the eyes ‎of G’d? Most likely the answer is that the commandments described as ‎קלה‎ are the ones that we ‎can find opportunities to perform, such as studying Torah, whereas the ones described as ‎חמורה‎, ‎are those that a person may have few opportunities to perform in a lifetime, or no opportunity at ‎all. ‎ ‎[Since mitzvah performance is incumbent both on the individual and the entire nation, we each ‎share in the performance of those who do have an opportunity to perform those, such as the ‎levirate marriage, to name just one. Ed.]‎ The author of the mishnah warns not to use the fact that some mitzvot can be ‎fulfilled all the time as an excuse to postpone fulfilling same, as we do not know how even these ‎‎mitzvot rate in terms of the reward in store for us.‎