Why Good Intentions Aren’t Enough: The Deeper Meaning of Mitzvot in Jewish Life

“I give charity from time to time, I’m nice to people, everyone at work gets along with me, I’m a devoted family man, and of course I respect religion — I don’t even skip Friday night prayers. What more does God want from me? Does He really care what’s on my plate or if I turned on a light during a holiday?”

Being kind and having a good heart, treating others with decency and warmth, are all undoubtedly of immense importance. The mitzvot between man and his fellow (bein adam le’chaveiro) and personal character refinement are central pillars of Jewish life. The Jewish bookshelf is filled with the writings of our Talmudic sages on the inner work expected of a person to improve their traits, alongside countless halachic works with detailed laws on interpersonal relationships.

However, the same God who wants only good for us, and who knows better than anyone what the right path is, both in this world and the next, gave us, the Jewish people, the Torah out of love, as a father gives a precious gift to his beloved children. The Torah is not a collection of well-meaning suggestions for living a good life, written by human wisdom or personal intuition. It is Divine wisdom — transcendent, infinite, and perfectly calibrated to our souls.

He alone defined the path that leads to our life’s purpose as He knows what brings eternal benefit. He outlined the only real way to connect with Him. He knows our soul better than we do. He knows where and how we’ll find genuine fulfillment — not the fleeting kind that disappears when the screen fades to black, but deep joy that doesn’t need filters, real peace that the soul silently longs for, and that inner connection to our true self, which may seem so obvious from the outside but can feel painfully distant in moments of silence and honest reflection.

There are mitzvot whose logic we can grasp, while others may seem strange or obscure. That's okay as long as we’re clear about one foundational truth: God said so.

When we know that the Torah life path is based on the will of the One who created us, who wants only our ultimate joy, who sees the full picture from above, and asks us to trust Him, to lean on Him, to walk together with Him — then the doubts fall away. Whether we understand the mitzvah or not becomes secondary.

When do we really know a relationship is real and deep? Is it when everything flows smoothly, is easy, pleasant, and always makes sense, or when we stay loyal and make space for the other even when we don’t fully understand? What defines loyalty in a relationship? Is it showing up every day with consistency, or occasionally wandering off into foreign pastures (say, once a week on Shabbat…)?

It’s possible to live an entire life under the illusion of having a close relationship with our Father in Heaven. We may want to convince ourselves that He “gets it,” and that He surely accepts the life we’re living and that it’s enough.

A true relationship with God is defined not when everything makes sense, or when it’s easy, but precisely in those confusing, difficult, and challenging moments. That’s when the sincerity of our connection is revealed.

A loyal relationship with the Creator means not giving up on what He has already defined as the eternal covenant between us: Shabbat.