{"id":7318,"date":"2023-08-25T15:43:11","date_gmt":"2023-08-25T15:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/?p=7318"},"modified":"2025-09-10T16:47:36","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T16:47:36","slug":"parshas-ki-seitzei-opportunities-to-help-yourself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/parshas-ki-seitzei-opportunities-to-help-yourself\/","title":{"rendered":"Parshat Ki Teitzei: Opportunities to Help Yourself"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Opportunities, Not Rights<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In this week\u2019s Torah reading, we have a mitzvah (commandment) to refrain from muzzling an ox while it is threshing. Why does one owe his ox to be treated to the grain it is threshing? The Sefer Hachinuch (Mitzvah 596) tells us that this mitzvah is intended to instill in us the trait of being kind and compassionate. It\u2019s not about the ox\u2019s rights, it\u2019s about us becoming elevated people. Exercising compassionate deeds turns us into compassionate people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This gives us a new attitude towards <em>mitzvos<\/em>. The Torah is not merely a compilation of random laws. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/about.php\">Torah<\/a> is a program for improving ourselves and reshaping who we are. The <em>Medrash<\/em> states (Bereishis Rabbah 44:1) in reference to the laws governing <em>shechitah <\/em>(ritual slaughtering), that God doesn\u2019t have any personal benefit from the way <em>shechitah <\/em>is done. Rather, the purpose of all <em>mitzvos <\/em>is to purify man. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Ramban (22:6) expounds on this concept and says that every single mitzvah a person does, besides earning reward, benefits a person in his life and improves him. It\u2019s not a matter of doing God \u201cfavors\u201d in exchange for receiving reward. Serving God as prescribed by the Torah is the best program for improving and benefiting ourselves in our lives. With some <em>mitzvos<\/em>, such as refraining from muzzling an animal while working with food, the way it improves our character is more understandable, and with some <em>mitzvos<\/em>, such as shechitah, it is less apparent. Whether we understand how a mitzvah helps us or not, every mitzvah is an opportunity God has granted us to become a better person, which is the purpose of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">God is not asking for favors; He wants to benefit us<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>A man once walked into the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Telshe_Yeshiva\">Telshe Yeshivah<\/a> (school for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/staff.php\">Talmud study<\/a>). He had shaven parts of his head which are forbidden to be shaven. One of the rabbis noticed what the man had done, and asked Rabbi B. to enlighten the fellow and educate him so that he wouldn\u2019t make the mistake again. Rabbi B. approached the person and said, \u201cPerhaps you didn\u2019t realize, but by shaving those parts of your head, you committed a boat-load of transgressions. Every hair shaven is another transgression.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The man responded in a nonchalant manner, \u201cI don\u2019t believe that our Merciful Father would care about some hair being shaven off.\u201d Rabbi B. was quick to respond and said, \u201cThat\u2019s exactly it, but you got it all wrong. It&#8217;s because we have a Merciful Father who cares so much about us, that he gave us these laws to follow. Because He loves us so much, He knows best what is best for us, and out of His great mercy He instructed us to behave in a manner which benefits us most.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is a mistake we all make to some extent. We feel that we are doing God favors when we push ourselves to do a mitzvah. God doesn\u2019t need us to do anything for Him. God is only interested in benefitting and helping us. Instead of looking at <em>mitzvos <\/em>as mere obligations, we should train ourselves to see them as the manifestation of God\u2019s kindness. Every mitzvah we encounter is another act of kindness of God, offering us opportunities to help ourselves. Every mitzvah is an opportunity to become a better person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button tm-cta\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/sign-up.php\">Learn more about the weekly Torah portion. Become a TorahMate today!<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>By Rabbi Yitzchok Aryeh Strimber <a href=\"mailto:torah4every1@gmail.com\">torah4every1@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Opportunities, Not Rights In this week\u2019s Torah reading, we have a mitzvah (commandment) to refrain from muzzling an ox while it is threshing. Why does one owe his ox to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[41,701,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-devarim","category-mitzvot","category-weekly-torah-portion"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Parshat Ki Teitzei: Opportunities to Help Yourself - Jewish Resources<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Every mitzvah we encounter is another act of kindness of God, offering us opportunities to help ourselves and become better people.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/parshas-ki-seitzei-opportunities-to-help-yourself\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Parshat Ki Teitzei: Opportunities to Help Yourself - 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