Midrash מִדְרָשׁ
כִּי תִקְצֹר קְצִירְךָ בְשָׂדֶךָ וְשָׁכַחְתָּ עֹמֶר בַּשָּׂדֶה לֹא תָשׁוּב לְקַחְתּוֹ לַגֵּר לַיָּתוֹם וְלָאַלְמָנָה יִהְיֶה לְמַעַן יְבָרֶכְךָ ה' אֱלֹקֶיךָ בְּכֹל מַעֲשֵׂה יָדֶיךָ:
When you gather the harvest in your field, and you forget a sheaf in the field, do not turn back to get it. It should be for the stranger, the orphan, and the widow—in order that God your Lord may bless you in all you do.
This is a surprising mitzvah. You get a blessing from God just for forgetting to do something?!
Here’s a story that points out the lesson behind this pasuk.
מַעֲשֶׂה בְּחָסִיד אֶחָד שֶׁשָּׁכַח עֹמֶר בְּתוֹךְ שָׂדֵהוּ וְאָמַר לִבְנוֹ צֵא וְהִקְרִיב עָלַי פָּר לְעוֹלָה וּפַר לִשְׁלָמִים.
אֲמַר לוֹ, אַבָּא, מָה רָאִיתָ לִשְׂמֹחַ בְּמִצְוָה זוֹ מִכָּל מִצְוֹת הָאֲמוּרוֹת בַּתּוֹרָה?
אָמַר לוֹ כָּל מִצְוֹת שֶׁבַּתּוֹרָה נָתַן לָנוּ הַמָּקוֹם לְדַעְתֵּנוּ, זוֹ שֶׁלֹּא לְדַעְתֵּנוּ, שֶׁאִלּוּ עֲשִׂינוּהָ בְּרָצוֹן לִפְנֵי הַמָּקוֹם לֹא בָּאת מִצְוָה זוֹ לְיָדֵינוּ…"
וַהֲלֹא דְּבָרִים קַל וָחֹמֶר, מָה אִם מִי שֶׁלֹּא נִתְכַּוֵּן לְזַכּוֹת וְזָכָה מַעֲלִין עָלָיו כְּאִלּוּ זָכָה, הַמִּתְכַּוֵּן לִזְכּוֹת וְזָכָה עַל אַחַת כַּמָּה וְכַמָּה.
Once a certain pious person forgot a sheaf in his field [during harvest], and he said to his son, “Go and sacrifice in my name a bull for an olah sacrifice and a bull for a shelamim sacrifice.”
The son said to him, “Father! Why are you celebrating this mitzvah more than any other mitzvah in the Torah?”
The father replied, “All mitzvot in the Torah were given to us by God to be done on purpose and with thought. But this mitzvah was given to us to be done unknowingly. If we had done it on purpose, we would not have actually fulfilled the commandment…”
We can conclude: If the Torah considers a person who does something good by accident to be worthy of merit, then someone who does something good on purpose must be even more deserving of merit.
This is an astonishing idea! You can do a mitzvah accidentally and it still “counts” and has incredible value.
- What can this mitzvah teach us about God? What can it teach us about the power of our actions?
- Have you ever done something by accident and it turned out to be for good? What are the good things you’re able to do without even thinking about them? What are the good things you do that take a lot of thought?
- When we do mitzvot, is it important to think or feel a certain way? How so? Can you think of some examples where our thoughts matter a lot, and some where our thoughts don’t matter so much?
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