The Torah Secret to a Deeper Relationship With Hashem - Rabbi Shlomo Horwitz

[music] >> You wouldn't believe what I learned about Parshat Shoftim. The Torah gives us a very short mitzvah. Just a couple of words. Tamim tihiyeh im Hashem Elokecha. Be wholehearted with Hashem your God. Now, what exactly does wholehearted mean? The Gemara tells us in the Nedarim lamed beis amud aleph that kol hatamim Hakadosh Baruch Hu mitamem imo, whoever conducts himself with temimus, simple wholehearted faith in Hashem, Hashem responds to him in kind. But what does that look like? Listen to this beautiful explanation from the Mei Shiloach, the Ishbitzer. Two ways of looking at our relationship with Hashem. A person can think, "Look what I do for Hashem. I daven, I learn, I give tzedakah, I do mitzvahs. I should deserve something for that." And in a sense, there's something to that. But there's another way to look at it. It's not transactional. Hashem created me. He gave me life. He gave me a soul. So when I serve him, I'm not doing him a great favor. This is what I have to do. He is my master, my father. I have to respond in kind. That is tamim. It's simple. The equation is very simple. We owe him. So what's the Gemara adding? When we stop viewing our relationship with Hashem as transactional, quid pro quo, Hashem stops treating it that way, too. Think about a father who gives something to his son. The father doesn't say, "All right, I gave you dinner, I bought you this, I bought you a pair of pants. I'm deducting it from what I owe you." No, he gives because this is his child whom he loves. So, when a person serves Hashem with temimus, without keeping score, Hashem responds in kind and can shower goodness upon him without deducting anything from his videos, his merit. It's not payment. It's a father giving to his child. Sometimes the deepest relationship with God begins when we stop keeping score. Have a good Shabbos and this Divrei Torah should be a zechus for Sarah Shifra bas Esther Yehudis for a refuah shleimah.