On Which Thought Counts

Rabbi Stephen Baars, commenting on this week’s Torah portion, says something very similar to what I said last week:

Buying your wife a $1,000 pearl necklace may be a great sacrifice on your part. But it is not going to do the trick if she doesn’t like pearls. Nobody wants your sacrifices!

…The only thing we can possibly give another is a piece of ourselves by becoming closer to them. Anything else they can get on their own. They really don’t need you to buy the flowers or the wrench set. Similarly, God can sacrifice His own animals. The only thing no one can have, unless I give it, is me. That’s all I have to give.

I think this is an important clarification on what I said before. Neither the thought nor the deed count if they aren’t part of the same whole. God doesn’t want our sacrifices or tithes or even our obedience if it’s forced and resentful. He wants all of those things, but with a willing heart. More than anything else, he wants our love. If he has that, the rest will follow.