What is the Value of Action, Intention and Joy in Serving God?
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The Value of Action, Intention and Joy in Serving God.
It is a universal principle that if a good deed is performed without any positive intention involved, it is lacking vitality and is likened to an empty shell. In this vein, the sages taught that “prayer without intention is like a body without a soul.” The same applies to all other positive actions; if the person does them without proper intentions, they are considered to be lifeless.
What is it that makes this idea so important for the Divine service of Noahides?
It is mainly a societal norm, rather than spelling out the actions that are required to fulfill the obligation. In general, the Noahide Laws do not include the same type of positive commandments as those in which Jews are obligated (for which the obligation itself has specific criteria, such as wearing tzitzit fringes, putting on tefillin, blowing a shofar, etc.)
The Jewish people were sanctified by God at Mount Sinai through being commanded by Him to do these activities (His positive mitzvot of the Torah), and He values these mitzvot actions greatly when they are performed by Jews, to whom they are commanded.
Therefore, when a Jew does them in accordance with their defining details as set out in the Oral Torah, there is intrinsic value to the action itself, since it serves as fulfillment of a Godly command, regardless of the intention involved.
In contrast, a Gentile’s deeds are judged by God mostly (indeed, almost completely) in regard to the person’s intention, rather than the main focus being upon the specific deed itself.
Therefore, in most cases, if a Gentile performs an action without intention, or with an incorrect intention, the action has no positive spiritual value.
Since the main obligations of the Noahide Code are logically and morally based, it is by the person’s motivating logic and morals that his actions are measured. If his intention is right, the action is judged by God as being good, and otherwise it is not.
The main and very important exception to this is in giving proper charity and performing acts of kindness for others. This is because the main value in the act is the benefit that accrues to the beneficiary of the charitable giving, and the appreciation of the person who was treated kindly.
For a Noahide, there is no actual holiness in one’s action, in and of itself. Rather, the value of the action in God’s eyes is based on the intention of the person who does it for a specific purpose, such as for the honor of the Creator, for the benefit of others, for the benefit of his own wellbeing, or for some moral purpose.
Nevertheless, every person should accustom himself to habitually do good deeds and act in good ways. Even if good actions are done by rote, or out of habit, they are still considered good actions!
This is because the person maintains an overall general intention to do good in his life, even if he doesn’t bring a thought about this to the forefront of his mind at the time that he is doing the good deed.
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Rabbi Moshe Perets is the President of the Noahide Academy of Israel, Founder and Executive Director of NoahideAcademy.org, the world’s largest Noahide informational website. He accomplished his Rabbinical Studies at the Chabad Yeshiva and his medical studies at the University of Louvain in Brussels, Belgium.
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