Parashat Shmini

Rav Haim Lifshitz

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Kavana:

Inner intention in the Performance of Mitsvot:

 Translated from Hebrew by S. NAthan

l'ilui nishmat Esther bat mordechai

Kavana in the Performance of Mitsvot: Causes and Effects

Kavana refers to the inner intention and mental focus that is required during the performance of the mitzvahs.  Kavana expresses inner emotion through free choice. The Tosfot  (Pesachim 115 s.v.) "Rav Hisda attacked his argument" analyzes the application of Kavana: "Because in relation to eating, we do not require Kavana to the extent that we require it in prayer or in sounding the shofar, and therefore we also do not cite here those braitot that we have cited there, where Kavana is required. Regarding prayer and shofar sounding, more Kavana is required as I have explained."

From this Tosfot we see what seems to be a clear division between mitsvot that are a performed act, and mitsvot that entail speaking or praying. With a mitsva act, awareness of the act extends across the entire duration of the act. It is almost certain that consciousness and awareness were present during the act, and therefore there is no need for a deliberate effort of awareness. However, a mitsva that depends on speech, that entails no actual deed, requires Kavana even according to the mahn d'amar, the opinion that mitsvot do not require Kavana. After all, what value is there in mere talk, in speech that has no intention behind it?

Kavana in mitsvot seems to divide into two stages. The first stage is the simple consciousness of the fact that the act one is performing is being performed because it is a mitsva; that it is not simply a random act. At the second stage, Kavana relates to the inner content of the mitsva - as in Pesahim 108, where we find that eating matsa and drinking four cups of wine requires awareness of the reason for these acts. Consciousness must be focused on the sensation of freedom - on moving from slavery into liberty. Here Kavana appears to devolve on the inner meaning of the mitsva.

It is relevant to mention at this point that the requirement of the higher stage of Kavana, where one is meant to focus on the inner content and meaning of the mitsva, does not refer to the specific kavanot that have been cited and itemized in the sacred literature. Rather it refers to the individual's personal participation in the mitsva. It refers to the individual's inward experience, to his emotions, to the extent that he is willing to identify himself with the mitsva - to express his dvaikut to the mitsva through performance of the mitsva.

By way of the mitsva he expresses his dvaikut to God; his dvaikut acquires physical tangibility through the act of mitsva. Kavana does not refer to ideas written in books, that do not derive from one's own heart. It refers to taking emotional initiative, through free choice; one's heart moves toward the mitsva - one's emotions reach out to a specific mitsva.

From this perspective we can better understand the very problematic issue of the sin of Nadav and Avihu. Aharon's sons are punished for drunkenness, for they have drunk wine. Why was the fact that they "offered an alien fire" not a sufficient sin? Why did Hazal have to add that they were drunk on wine?

Perhaps if they had added their own qualitative inner feeling to the mitsva, meaning the addition of Kavana through an initiative of free choice, they might not have been punished but rather rewarded. Even if this inner intention of free choice had swept in its wake a fire added by human hands, uncommanded by God, nevertheless the deficiency was in their being drunk. Their minds were not clear enough to contain the inner intentions of Kavana, the conscious awareness required by behira, the Kavana that would have been appropriate, that would have made them worthy of adding a kedusha supplement of their own, as "gavra" adds to "heftsa" - as a subjective human being may enhance an objective mitsva, as discussed by the Ramban in Parashat Tsav in relation to the haza'ot.

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Birkat kohanim, the priestly blessing, is different in this sense from viyehi noam, Moshe's words of blessing to the people upon completion of the work of the mishkan. Birkat kohanim was not said on completion of the work of the mishkan, but rather as a beginning, as the marking of the commencement of avodat hamishkan by Aharon.

Viyehi noam is different in root and meaning. The doubling of words - "let the work of our hands be well established upon us and let the work of our hands be well established of Him" testifies to an encounter between the Kavana born of a human being's choice to act for the sake of heaven, and the response by the Creator through hashgaha prateet.

The rule goes as follows: Kavana out of choice, i.e. itaruta d'l'tata, (the 'lower one's' - the human being's - 'awakening' - choosing to reach toward God) causes hashgaha prateet as a result of itaruta d'l'eila ('the Higher One's' - God's - 'awakening' - being moved to respond to the human initiative). This response by heaven grants man an augmented kedusha, which has the effect of broadening his limited and limiting conditions. If the work of our hands is well-established upon us, then the work of our hands will be well-established of Him: From above, He will guide the work of our hands, to be well established through His hashgaha prateet.

Thus the act of mitsva attains permanence. It acquires the privileged status of having created a Godly reality - that is, a new reality, created in and by the human world of yetsira, creativity. With the work of the mishkan, in contrast, one who offered a korban gained bracha - something like the neshama yetaira, the supplemental soul that a Jew is granted on Shabat.

Augmented kedusha allows God's servant entry into an infinite vastness that liberates him from his closed and limited reality, through a combination of free choice and hashgaha prateet, each of which is designed to complete the other. Whereas birkat kohanim bestows, from the supreme treasury of kedusha, an infinitely abundant hashgaha prateet, in merit of avodat hakorbanot, which widens the circle created by the bond between God's servant and his Possessor.

Prohibited Foods

One can find a similar principle guiding the distinction between animals that may be eaten and those that may not be eaten: An animal that re-chews its cud and that has a split in its hooves is a permitted animal. Both of these signs indicate openness, expansion, and continuity. The re-chewing of the cud is a persistent continuity, and the split hoof is openness.