* Translated by Janine Muller Sherr
74 mitzvot!
This past Shabbat we read Parashat Ki Teitze which is the parasha in the Torah that contains the largest number of mitzvot: 74 out of a total of taryag (613) mitzvot.
Let’s stop for a moment and think about this, especially now in the month of Elul. The list of mitzvot in this parasha is not a long shopping list of items to “check off” when completed.
The word Mitzvah is not only derived from the root word, “tzivui”- commandment, it is also closely related to the Aramaic word, “tzavta”-together, which is connected to the Hebrew word, “tzevet,” – staff, a group of people who work together. When a person fulfills a mitzvah, he or she is connecting to God and becoming His partner. This connection in itself is the greatest reward and the most incredible source of joy! Through mitzvot, a person is doing the right thing, and in this way, he is making the world right too.
The mitzvot enable us to take the most basic things of all: our bodies, our possessions, our most physical parts, and to sanctify them. For example, we can take our hard-earned money—and give it to tzedakah, to someone in need. We can find a lost item and return it to its owner; we can take tefillin straps and wrap them around our arms; we can knead dough and make the blessing of hafrashat challah (separating challah).
It is through these physical actions that we mere humans are able to bring into our world holy sparks of the eternal Light.
At the end of each year, as we stand on the cusp of the year to come, it is the custom for us to take on a new mitzvah, a practical action, which will bring us more of a -“tzavta”—connection to God— and thus bring more holiness into our lives.
