We left off last week with a seeming argument. When fulfilling the Mitzvah of Veahavta LeRe’echa Kamocha/ love your friend like you love yourself , should you be thinking that you’re doing it because it’s a Mitzvah (because in order to fulfill a Mitzvah you need to have kavana), or should you do it because you’re naturally a good person, and you love your fellow Jew like you love yourself, without any ulterior motives or Mitzvah reasons? Rabbi Moshe Feinstein has an unbelievable thought on this, in his sefer Kol Ram , on Parashat Pinhas (Bamidbar ch 28 v19), where it says, “ Bring a korban Olah- bring two cows, one ram, and seven sheep.” Rashi brings down, beautifully, from the Midrash, that these three of animals, the cow, ram, and sheep correspond to Abraham, Yitzhak and Yaakov. It says that Abraham ran to the cow when his three guests came to visit, the ram is the ram of Akedat Yitzhak, and Yaakov Avinu watched the sheep. Rav Moshe points out that it says two cows , but Abraham ran to one cow. So why does it say there were two cows? He explains beautifully, that in an act of hessed, there are two things going on, and that both are true. Firstly, when you do an act of hessed, you are supposed to be doing it because Hashem said so. That’s what He wants us to do. But on the other hand, you’re supposed to do it because of good middot . We want to love doing hessed. Abraham Avinu didn’t have the Mitzvah of doing hessed that day because there were no people there. But he so much wanted to do the Mitzvah of Hessed, that Hashem sent him the angels. It wasn’t being done because of the Mitzvah. That would be like wanting to shake a Lulav when it’s not Succot. He was doing it out of his love of hessed. That’s Middot. But at the same time, he did it because he knew that it’s a Mitzvah, a commandment. So there are two aspects, and both are true. Therefore, two cows are brought for the korban, in remembrance of Abraham, because when he went to the one cow to do his act of kindness, it was really two cows- the two aspects of hessed. So in the back of our minds, when we do Hessed, we should know that it’s a Mitzvah. We aren’t just doing it because we are humanists, or because it seems like the right thing. But, the goal of the Mitzvah is to work on our hearts to the point that we are Mitzvah driven but we don’t have to think about the Mitzvah. We do it because we want to do it, but we know that it’s a Mitzvah at the same time. Like when you sit down to a delicious Shabbat meal, you know it’s a Mitzvah - Oneg Shabbat, and you say Lchvod Shabbat Kodesh. But come on, you are really enjoying it. That it was Veahavta LeRe’echa Kamocha is supposed to be. It’s a Mitzvah, but it’s delicious! That’s the way we merge both approaches. Like in any machloket , they are both true. Rav Moshe Feinstein beautifully explains these two tracks of hessed, merged into one, and that’s how Abraham Avinu’s running to the one cow became two cows. Have a wonderful day.