What is a Mitzvah?

What is a mitzvah? Many people mistakenly define a mitzvah as a commandment – a rule that must be followed. Although that definition may be etymologically correct, it is hashkafically flawed. For all our life we are given but one job – to weave a beautiful tapestry, a garment with which we will be clothed when we finally do get to experience the world to come.

And unlike the slaves in Egypt who were eventually forced to gather the materials of their task themselves – they had to gather their own hay and dig their own clay; we are given the raw materials to accomplish this task. A multi-colored tapestry, made of 613 different colored threads is what our life’s work is. Not all 613 colors are available to us all; we each have a unique combination of colors with which to weave our tapestry and each one, each strand is what we call a mitzvah.