Society and Culture
Bob Rich’s Self-Therapy Guide: The Secret Good of Mitzvah
In this series, Dr. Bob Rich teaches you how to leave behind depression, anxiety, and other forms of suffering all too common in our crazy world. Recovering the Self published three sections of Bob Rich’s book From Depression to Contentment: A self-therapy guide in a series of posts – the first section ending with the quest for meaning and the second section concluding with The Development of Resilience.
The third section of Bob’s work was marked by special attention to various techniques and practices that are helpful in controlling depression. It concluded with a discussion on values and their implication in therapy. Bob now shares the final section of his self-therapy guide that delves deeper into the practical side of his therapy work illustrating with examples from individual cases of his own patients. In the 7th post in this section, Bob explored the magic of metta and offers words that matter. Here he views the beauty of the Jewish custom of Mitzvah and its secret good.
The Secret Good of Mitzvah
The mitzvah is a beautiful Jewish custom. It is a secret good deed, which need not be anything major. When you do it, say “Mitzvah!” within your mind.
Here are a few recent examples from me. (Mind you, they’ve stopped being mitzvahs, because I’ve let other people know about them.)
- I’ve picked up a sharp-pointed screw from a bike path, saving an unknown cyclist from a puncture.
- I saw a poor little beetle on its back, desperately waving its legs in the air. I turned it the right way up. Since I’m sure its level of understanding is not sufficient to have it appreciate the deliberate kindness, I counted it as a mitzvah.
- Similarly, I fished a spider out of a half-full bucket of water.
- A lady was posting a letter. It fell out of the slot of the letter box as she walked away. Making sure no one noticed, I picked it up, and posted it for her.
- As I was driving along, I saw that the car in the next lane would soon be stopped by an illegally parked car. Being as unobtrusive as I could, I hung back, so the driver could change lanes.
Why should the mitzvah stay a secret?
In Jewish ethics, an act is its own reward or punishment. Suppose I steal something, and am never found out. My punishment is that God and I both know that I am a thief. (In Buddhist thinking, it’s a debit on my karma. According to Muslim beliefs, an angel sitting on my left shoulder writes it down, and it’ll be evidence against me on the Day of Judgment.)
If I do a good deed, my reward is that God and I both know that I’m a good person. (Or it’s a credit on my karma, or the angel on my right shoulder writes it down.)
You can be an atheist and appreciate the logic.
Suppose my good deed is public rather than a secret. Then, I get extrinsic rewards: another person’s gratitude, admiration or appreciation. “Thank you” is sufficient reward, so I can’t also claim the inherent one of becoming a better person.
Besides, it’s more fun that way.
– Dr. Bob Rich
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