Back in April, I wrote: here about people who are moved by different things, and what appeals to one in his mitzva observance or in not violating a prohibition, may not speak to someone else.
I was reminded of this today as I was reading about a former Mirrer talmid who said there were countless times that he was tempted to enter a business deal that wasn't perfectly honest, but then he thought, "How can I do this? Rav Nosson Tzvi [the rosh yeshiva] respects me!"
It's like when Yosef Ha'Tzaddik was on the verge of sinning and he saw the image of his father Yaakov which prevented him from sinning. In both cases, the motivation was not the prohibition involved, that G-d said, "do not commit adultery," "do not steal," but an image of someone respected whom they could not let down.
Our minds work in interesting ways, don't they?
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This month's Reader's digest, which can be accessed online, has an article about the type of faulty thinking that leads to tragic outcomes such as when someone tries to rescue a dying person from poison gas and then becomes overwhelmed with poison himself. He means well but dies just the same. We probably make those same decisions with regard to mitzvos without realizing that future generations will be impacted with how Jewishly we live.
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