What is the purpose of the mitzvot? TB Eruvin 31

What is the purpose of the mitzvot? Today’s daf TB Eruvin 31 gives one answer to that question. Before I share the Gemara’s answer, I have to give you some background information. By making an eruv takhumim, the person is creating his new home. In fact on yesterday’s daf Ḥananya said Beit Shammai holds that food is insufficient to make an eruv tekhumim. One must carry out his bed and utensils to the new location. Like almost always, the halakhah follows Beit Hillel and not Beit Shammai. Food sufficient for two meals can create an eruv tekhumim. Secondly, one may not acquire a home with items from which benefit is forbidden. The rabbis learn that one is forbidden to derive benefit from a grave. If this is the case, how can the Mishna allow a kohen make an eruv tekhumim in a graveyard? “Rabbi Yehuda says: An eiruv teḥumin may be established for a priest even between the graves in a graveyard, an area which the priest may not enter by Torah law,” (Sefaria.org translation, on daf 26b)

Answer lies in the purpose of the mitzvot. “Rabbi Yehuda holds that mitzvot were not given for benefit (מִצְוֹת לָאו לֵיהָנוֹת נִיתְּנוּ). The fulfillment of a mitzva is not in itself considered a benefit. Since the acquisition of a place of residence by means of an eiruv is a mitzva, as one may establish an eiruv teḥumin only for the sake of a mitzva, it is even permitted to establish one’s eiruv in a place from which it is prohibited to benefit (our example in a grave yard-gg).” (Sefaria.org translation) Rashi teaches that the mitzvot isn’t to gain benefit, but rather to yoke us the Holy One Blessed be He.

My friend Andrea Cohen-Kiner taught me the same idea in a more acceptable modern idiom by using the word mitzvah (מצוה) as an acronym.

מ-a mem in front of the word can make it an instrument, tool, or a machine. For example, the Hebrew word for cold is קר-kar and the Hebrew word for refrigerator is מקרר–mekorair.

צ-tzadi stands for the tzitziyot, the knots or ties of the fringes of a tallit.

ו-a vav is hook.

ה-is an abbreviation for God’s name.

A mitzvah provides us with a wonderful opportunity because it is an instrument that ties us or connects us to God. Personally, I can’t think of a better benefit.