Our sages teach: The Holy One blessed be He desired to bring merit to Israel; therefore he increased for them Torah and mitzvot (Mishneh Makot 3:16).

Run to do an easy mitzvah and run away from sin, because one mitzvah leads to another mitzvah … the reward of a mitzvah is the mitzvah (Avot 4:2).

We are here in this world to resolve an essential paradox: How does a G‑d Who is One express Himself if there’s no other to express Himself to? How do we enter into a relationship with Him without obliterating ourselves in the process? Why does G‑d want a home in the physical world? The fullest expression of G‑d is through the paradoxical, through bringing extremes together and somehow containing them as one. The more extreme and unbridgeable the divide, the greater the power that unites them. That’s why G‑d created a world filled with conflict and disunity, with dramatic contrasts and extremes, and gave us the job of remaking it into His home. The remaining question is how? How do we go about reconciling the irreconcilable and solving the essential riddle of creation? What tools do we have at our disposal?

G‑d had a plan for this. A “613 point” plan, to be exact. He gave us the Torah, a list of rules for life—248 do’s and 365 don’ts, also known as mitzvot. A mitzvah is a commandment or good deed, but also has the Aramaic root of tzavta, meaning “connection.”1 The theme of every mitzvah is to connect us to G‑d and ease the conflict inherent in creation.2 Each mitzvah that we do is a different tool or approach to create order out of chaos and unity out of fragmentation.

Mitzvot are incredibly variegated, textured, multi-sensory experiences, encompassing every human activity and bodily function. As a popular children’s book says, “There are mitzvot to wear and mitzvot to eat; mitzvot for home and for shul and the street; mitzvot for noses and fingers and feet.”3 Mitzvot are primarily actions, but include our thoughts and feelings as well. Doing even a single mitzvah is a life-changing experience in which we become entirely submerged and invested.

Despite the celestial underlying theme of mitzvot, they are oddly specific. The entire body of Jewish law is dedicated to defining the parameters of a mitzvah down to the exact size, shape, weight, movement and time. For example, take the mitzvah of blessing the four kinds on Sukkot. It involves taking four different types of vegetation, and shaking them. There are pages and pages of Jewish law defining exactly what these four types are and what features they must have; how to bind them together; how to shake them; and where and when to make the blessing. This intense focus on the details of mitzvah observance seems extreme, even obsessive. Why were our sages so preoccupied with the minutiae of the commandments, and why do Torah scholars to this day spend many hours each day poring over texts clarifying the specifics of each mitzvah? Does G‑d really care?

The precision of a mitzvah is exactly how it works its power. A mitzvah is a finite, physical vessel for G‑d’s infinite light. Without the definition provided by Jewish law, the mitzvot would be nice thoughts, nice concepts, but they would have no way of taking hold in this world, and the merger between finite and infinite would not take place.4 The Tanya5 describes doing a mitzvah as giving G‑d a big hug. He may be dressed in many layers that conceal Him from us, but he’s nevertheless inside of those garments and embracing us with every mitzvah that we do.

A New Era

Mitzvot have a powerful impact on the universe, bringing healing and harmony to all of creation. Arguably, none of us are aware of the true impact of our mitzvot because it will not be revealed to us until Moshiach comes.6 Each mitzvah that we do fuses the physical with the spiritual and draws Divine light into this world, but we don’t see it. We don’t sense it. Through study of Chassidic teachings, we are given just a hint of the magnificence of each good deed.

Until now, we have done mitzvot to prepare and refine the world for the coming of Moshiach. But now the work of refinement is done. Our work now is to prepare ourselves to actually receive Moshiach. All these generations, we’ve been drawing peace, harmony and light into the world through our mitzvot, but we were oblivious to those effects. Now the time has come for us to be able to enjoy the fruits of our labor and to experience the promised era of peace and tranquility, the time of Moshiach.7