This class is dedicated by Ephraim Sobol in loving memory of his father, Shlomo Mordechai ben Yaakov a”h.

There would also have to be ways to serve G-d under unremarkable, matter-of-fact circumstances of course. After all, not everything we do is magical or embellished with religious aura. We’re far more often eating and drinking, wearing clothes, walking or riding and the like than praying or studying Torah. So we’d obviously need to know how to worship G-d then, too. This chapter will dwell on that.

We actually encountered the principle behind the solution to this a long while back, when we spoke of our immortal souls being thrust into a material world and having to learn to contend with the inherent conflict (see 1:4:4). A lot of it comes to this.

Absolutely *nothing* is without its place and purpose; everything matters in G-d’s wide world and contributes toward the ultimate goal of universal perfection. There’s no denying the fact, though, that each and every person, place, and thing has fixed conditions under which it operates and a unique character, and that all of them have to somehow fit into the great pattern and makeup of the celestial forces that influence the cosmos.

And so specific mitzvot had to have been ordained for us for those times when we’re not engaged in specifically spiritual activities that take all of this into account, that also anchor all of those activities onto the side of right rather than wrong, and that benefit and rectify things.

Know, too, that the effect our mundane actions have on the cosmos not only depend on their makeup, they also depend on their relationship to all earthly and otherworldly circumstances, and on the fact that everything is indeed progressing toward perfection. So obviously only G-d in His infinite wisdom could have provided us with mitzvot that take all of that into account.

Text Copyright © 2005 by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman and Torah.org.