The Do-Nothing Mitzvah 

Of all the ways we can make money today, I think the best one is to do nothing.  

Do nothing? 

Yeah. If you never use half the money in your bank account, ask your bank about putting it in a savings account or buying a CD (certificate of deposit). All you have to do is nothing. As long as you don’t spend that money for 3, 6, or 12 months, you can get a 4% return.  

Doing nothing has to be one of the best ways of making money.  

The same applies for one of the most powerful mitzvot in the Torah. 

Resisting the Urge to Act 

According to the Tanya, most of us are somewhere between being a tzaddik (perfectly righteous) and a rasha (completely wicked).  

We all get urges.  

It’s the tzaddik that has worked on himself so diligently, so thoroughly, that he has perfected his Neshama (soul) to not get any urges at all. If he does, he is genuinely repulsed to his kishkas (guts). He turned his evil inclination into another good inclination and is serving Hashem with all of his heart.  

Being a tzaddik is like being in the Hall of Fame. You are literally one in a million. 

Of the hundreds of millions of people who have played baseball, only 20,000 made it to the major leagues. Of those selected few, 269 are in the hall of fame.  

That’s a tzaddik. 

For the rest of us, we have to fight.  

We will have urges. We will be tempted. We will like these urges and want to fulfill them. At the least expected moment, our minds will be bombarded with more images than 100 dirty magazines.  

This is the battle of our life. Hashem desires our efforts to fight with all our heart. He loves Jews who struggle to overcome these obstacles to come closer. It doesn’t matter if you sport a tzitzit or a tattoo – if you are fighting these urges, Hashem is smiling on you.  

Every time we push away these thoughts, we defeat the forces of evil in this world, causing them to weaken. We add holiness to the universe. We stab the angel of Esau in the heart and bring him closer to death.  

It isn’t the economy or military of the United States and Europe that forces us in Israel to follow them like a dog on a leash. It’s the power of their angels. Every time we fight, we land an upper hook against the forces behind our worst enemies trying to destroy us.  

The Something that Comes from Nothing 

One who stays put (in the face of temptation) and does not transgress, will be given the same reward as if he had (actively) performed a positive mitzvah. (Talmud, Kiddushin 39b) 

Nobody can see what you are thinking. You can wear a kippa and tzitzit and everyone around you will think you are righteous. You can go your whole life without telling anyone what you are thinking. 

This is an arena where only you can decide to fight. It is a place where there is nobody to police yourself but you. 

Make the effort to resist these thoughts, to cry out – even in a whisper, “Hashem, I don’t want these thoughts in my head. Please help me stop.”  

With this effort, you are earning the same merit from God as if you were performing a mitzvah.  

Even as you technically stay in a state of “doing” nothing, you are shaking heaven and earth to the core by obliterating pieces of the evil forces that illegally occupy our universe.  

What Can I Do? 

When you are bombarded with these thoughts, how can you stop? 

• Engage in a conversation with someone. 
• Learn Torah out loud. Physically read out loud every word you are reading. 
• Take a walk.  
• Exercise. 
• Find an activity that you know will engage you mentally.  
• Stop what you are doing and do something else – even if just for 10 minutes. 
• Ask Hashem for help – right on the spot. Say a personal prayer to your Father to ask for His help.  
• Recite Psalms. 
• Get out of bed. 

Any of these can stop in its tracks the momentum of these thoughts.  

1. You stop this process at the thought level. Baruch Hashem, it doesn’t mutate into action.  
2. You weaken the forces of darkness and evil in this world.  
3. God loves what you are doing! You are toiling, at the deepest level of your soul, to come closer to Him by escaping the clutches of the Satan. You are choosing God with your every thought.  

The Lubavitcher Rebbe tells us that this is why we are alive. This is what God created the material world for: In order for us, His children, to dig through the muck to find Him.  

God created all of it to see us, the Children of Jacob, wrestle with the forces of Edom, get dirty, get hurt, and keep fighting until we merit the name Israel.  

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David Ben Horin lives in Afula with his family, millions of sunflowers, and Matilda, our local camel. David’s Israeli startup, Center Stage Marketing, is a lean marketing agency for startups and small businesses that creates and promotes SEO optimized ROI-driven to the right audience on LinkedIn to make your business the star of the show.