Doing a Mitzvah

When was the last time you fulfilled a mitzvah?

How much thought did you put into it?

Did you have to go out of your way, or was it convenient?

In Ki Teitzei, the parsha that lists the most mitzvot in the entire Torah, we are commanded to do certain things to help care for the weakest among us. Strangers, orphans, and widows, have the opportunity benefit from our mitzvot. But not in a way that we’re used to.

This week, in Ki Teitzei, even the most forgetful person has the opportunity to fulfill a mitzvah.

Ki tik-tzor k’tizr-cha v’sadecha, v’sho-chach-ta omer ba-sadeh, LO tashuv l’kach-to

When you reap your harvest in your field and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall NOT go back to fetch it.

Here, we have a mitzvah, the only mitzvah, which is entirely dependent on not thinking about it, dependent on having no intent to do it at all.

What does that mean for us, the hopeful mitzvah-doers? Is this one mitzvah less important than the other, because it was accidental? Should the strangers, orphans and widows in our societies depend on our absentmindedness for sustenance?

No. In fact, this purpose of this mitzvah isn’t really to benefit those who might otherwise go hungry. There are plenty of other commandments that are geared to serve their needs. Instead, it is for our own benefit.

When we get so busy or flustered, that we forget to go out of our way to do good in the world, this mitzvah reminds us good comes in all forms. Good can come from donating, or volunteering, or going out of your way a bit little. Or good can come even in the forgetting. Each of us has opportunities and the ability to do mitzvot, to do good and make the world a better place, whether we planned to, or not.