Why Does the Torah Conceal the Reward for the Mitzvot?

Almost nowhere in the Torah do we find an explicit promise of reward for a mitzvah. There are two striking exceptions:

Honoring parents (kibbud av va’eim): “Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, in order that your days be lengthened and in order that it may be good for you upon the land which the Lord your God gives you” (Devarim 5:16).

Sending away the mother bird (shiluach haken): “If a bird’s nest happens to be before you … you shall surely send away the mother and the young you may take for yourself, in order that it may be good for you and you will lengthen your days” (Devarim 22:6–7).

The Torah promises the same reward — “long life and goodness” — for two mitzvot that could hardly be more different: one light and momentary, the other heavy and lifelong.

Why Hide the Rewards?

The Midrash offers a parable to explain this apparent enigma:

A king hired workers to tend his orchard but did not tell them which trees were the most valuable. Had he revealed the exact wages for each task, the workers would have focused only on the most profitable jobs, leaving the other trees neglected. By keeping the reward hidden, he ensured that all parts of the orchard would be tended.

So too with mitzvot: If we knew which ones earned greater reward, we might end up neglecting the rest. Therefore, God concealed their reward, teaching that every mitzvah is essential. As the Talmudic Sages say: “Be as careful with an easy mitzvah as with a hard one, for you do not know the reward of the mitzvot” (Pirkei Avot 2:1).

Why Reveal These Two?

To show us how little we truly understand, the Torah revealed reward for two mitzvot at opposite extremes:

The easiest of mitzvot — sending away the mother bird, described in the Jerusalem Talmud as “the lightest of the light.”

One of the hardest — honoring parents, which can demand daily effort, sacrifice, and even financial cost.

Both are promised the same reward: long life. This “shaking up” of expectations teaches us not to weigh mitzvot or choose based on our own calculations.

The Real Reward

Does this mean the two mitzvot really receive identical payment? Not exactly. The Sages taught: “According to the effort is the reward” (Pirkei Avot 5:23). The promise of “long life” is only a small glimpse. The true reward for mitzvot is hidden, reserved for the World to Come, “the world that is entirely good” and “the world that is entirely long.”

What About This World?

The Talmud states: “There is no reward for mitzvot in this world” (Kiddushin 39b). We may receive partial blessings here, but the main portion is eternal. This explains troubling cases, such as when someone appears to fulfill a mitzvah yet suffers immediately afterward. The Torah’s promise is not contradicted; it simply applies on a higher plane, beyond what we are capable of perceiving.

The medieval sage Rabbi Menachem Meiri added: Sometimes worldly reward is delayed or held back by other factors. Our task is not to question God’s justice but to trust His hidden wisdom.

Why Appearances Can Mislead

The Talmud illustrates this idea with the life-story of Elisha ben Avuya, who saw someone lose his life after fulfilling both the mitzvah of honoring parents and that of sending away the mother bird. Misunderstanding the Torah’s lessons, he concluded that the Torah’s promises were false. In truth, the promises refer to the eternal world, not the temporary one. His error lay in judging by appearances. Elisha ben Avuya ended up a heretic due to this lack of comprehension, rooted in a lack of humility. Why should we imagine that we can grasp God’s divine calculations?

A modern analogy goes some way to helping us understand this idea, although it is not a direct parallel:

A professor explains the dangers of smoking, only for someone to object that his neighbor smoked daily into old age while another man died young despite never smoking. Such examples do not overturn medical reality — they only prove that many hidden factors are also at play. So too with mitzvot: one case cannot disprove God’s truth, and the broader picture is beyond our perception.

Faith Brings Double Reward

The Midrash teaches that when a person performs mitzvot with simplicity and faith — without making calculations — they are rewarded twice: once for the deed itself, and again for their trust in God.

The Torah teaches us not to rank mitzvot by ease or difficulty, nor by apparent outcomes in this world. All mitzvot are vital; all carry eternal reward. The revealed promises of “long life” for two commandments that seemingly have nothing in common at all are reminders that the true reward is hidden, beyond measure, and fully known only to God.