Questions for today:
How do I elevate commandments that I did without the life imbued with intent, and what about if I acted selflessly?
Today’s Tanya differentiates between mitzvos that are performed without thought and mitzvos that are performed with ulterior motives.
If a person does something without thinking why they're doing it and who they're doing it for, the action lacks life and inspiration. However, if he then performs a mitzvah with thought, it elevates all of the past mitzvos that he had performed mindlessly.
For instance, a man prepares coffee for his wife every single day, but he doesn’t think about how tired she is and how hard she is working. Then, one day when he brings her a coffee, he tells his wife that he realizes how hard she works and really appreciates the fact that he can do this for her.
This thought and care takes all the coffees that he has prepared in the past and makes them part of this love that he just expressed.
What if somebody is not just not thinking, but he’s actually doing it for a selfish, narcissistic reason?
For instance, someone is studying Torah because he wants to be a famous scholar who will be worshipped by all. This mitzvah is tainted with that narcissistic attitude.
To retroactively elevate mitzvos that were done with selfish motives, the person would have to look in the mirror and completely reframe his life values so that he can act selflessly.
This process of introspection and reframing is called teshuva, repentance. Once he does that, everything he has done in the past can be elevated with that new selfless inspiration.
112 Tanya Nissan 12 ~ m133 Nisan 4
Tanya book 1, ch 39, Pt 6
There is a difference between a mitzvah done without intent and one done with an ulterior motive.
A mitzvah done without intent could be elevated by simply doing it again with inspiration.
However, a mitzvah done with ulterior motives retains the selfishness that caused it. To elevate this mitzvah, we would need teshuva, which involves serious introspection and reevaluation of our goals.
Study today’s Tanya in full:
https://www.chabadmed.com/dailystudy/tanya.asp?tdate=4/5/2022
See today’s video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1g-ruz7Jb0c&list=PLFZQPK6u-zSBls9Hwx3P5vKIBRnjBvHe&index=112