Chasidut к Авот 2:1

Lviticus 15,18. “when a man has had sexual intercourse ‎with a woman, both of them have to ritually cleanse ‎themselves in a ritual bath, after which they remain ritually ‎impure until evening.” Rashi states that the decree ‎that the woman too remains ritually impure until nightfall is a ‎Divine decree for which no explanation has been offered.‎
At first glance Rashi’s comments are hard to understand ‎as they appear to defy logic, as the whole idea of ritual defilement ‎being a result of man performing the first commandment in the ‎Torah, to be fruitful and multiply, when he engages in marital ‎relations with his wife should not result in ritual contamination ‎of either party.‎
We must therefore conclude that it is not the act of engaging ‎in marital relations which causes the ritual defilement. The ‎problem is that the urge to engage in sexual relations is aroused ‎by the evil urge, and this being so, even when the act is ‎performed in order to fulfill the commandment to have children, ‎it is impossible not to derive some physical pleasure from ‎performing this act, and this part of performing the ‎commandment is what accounts for the need to purify oneself ‎subsequently and thus atone for impure thoughts entertained ‎during performance of the commandment, i.e. the act of ‎impregnating one’s partner with one’s sperm.‎
The matter is comparable to a powerful king who had two ‎servants, both of whom were members of the highest nobility in ‎the kingdom. The King charged both of these noblemen with ‎carrying out a specific task on his behalf. Both of these noblemen ‎carried out their part of the task in accord with their ‎instructions, the only difference between the two being their ‎motivation when carrying out this task. One of the noblemen ‎carried out the task in order to provide the king, his master, with ‎a sense of satisfaction and pleasure, whereas the second one was ‎motivated purely by the fact that it was a task the performance ‎of which was very much to his liking, his having wished that he ‎could have performed it even without having been given the ‎opportunity to so by the king’s command. When the first ‎nobleman carried out the king’s command the effect of his ‎performance was that he “enthroned” the king, i.e. testified to ‎the King’s legitimacy and power, whereas the second nobleman, ‎although he had performed the identical act, had thereby merely ‎indulged his personal desires.
The same distinction applies to husbands who perform the ‎act of marital intercourse with their respective wives, knowing ‎that they thereby fulfill their Creator’s command. A husband who ‎uses the opportunity of marital intercourse with his wife in order ‎to satisfy his sexual urges, cannot lay claim to have done so as a ‎way of “enthroning,” i.e. confirming that he recognizes G’d as his ‎Master. This is what Rashi meant by his comment on the ‎words: ‎וטמאו עד הערב‎, “they will remain ritually impure until the ‎evening.” When Rashi referred to the fact that seminal ‎emission causes ritual impurity as a “royal decree,” he referred to ‎people fulfilling a royal decree not because they meant thereby ‎to “enthrone” the king.‎
From all this we learn how careful a person has to be when ‎carrying out Torah commandments that he does so for the ‎correct reasons, primarily to “enthrone” the Creator by his ‎willing observance.‎
The Talmud (Chagigah 5) relates that Rabbi Iylah once ‎overheard a youngster in school reading aloud a verse from Amos ‎‎4,13, where the prophets says: ‎מגיד לו מה שיחו‎, “(G’d)can quote ‎back to a person every word he uttered, (even words spoken ‎during the intimacy in the conversation with his wife while in ‎bed);”
Rabbi Moses Isserles in his glossary on the Orach Chayim ‎chapter 1,1 explains the importance of the verse in psalms 16,8 ‎where David says that “I am ever mindful of the Lord’s presence,” ‎שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד וגו'‏‎. The simple meaning of this line is that we ‎must never consider ourselves as being “alone,” unobserved ‎wherever we are, as G’d is aware of all our deeds everywhere and ‎of all our thoughts. This must be one of the first thoughts that ‎cross our minds when awakening in the morning. When we keep ‎this verse in mind this will go a long way toward ensuring that ‎both our actions and our thoughts and plans remain within the ‎channels which the Torah encourages us to navigate. Both ‎Jeremiah 23,24 who said, quoting G’d: “if a man enters a hiding ‎place, do I not see him?”, and the Mishnah in Avot 2,1 ‎which concludes with Rabbi Yehudah (the editor) telling us: ‎‎“know what is above you; a seeing eye and a hearing ear, and that ‎all your deeds are being recorded in The Book, and you will not ‎easily fall into the grip of sin;” have made the same point using ‎slightly different syntax.‎
Nonetheless Rabbi Yehudah’s words need further analysis, ‎since “how can we know what is above us,” i.e. beyond our ‎powers of perception with our senses? Seeing that Hashem ‎resides not only in the celestial regions which are beyond access ‎to us but even in higher regions than the highest ranking angels, ‎the seraphim, what did Rabbi Yehudah hanassi mean ‎when he used the world ‎דע!‏‎? Why did Rabbi Yehudah add the ‎word ‎ממך‎, “beyond you?”‎

These considerations prompted the Talmud in ‎‎Sanhedrin 99 to state ‎במקום שבעלי תשובה עומדים צדיקים ‏גמורים אין יכולים לעמוד‎, “perfectly righteous people, i.e. those who ‎have never tasted sin, cannot take their place next to repentant ‎sinners, as the latter have struggled much harder to rehabilitate ‎themselves after having tasted the immediate benefits in this life ‎of having sinned.” The repentant sinner provided G’d with much ‎greater pleasure when he repented than the ‎צדיק גמור‎, the ‎unblemished righteous person who had never been exposed to ‎temptation and had conquered it. The repentant sinner had ‎proven that it is possible to break the hold that the evil urge had ‎claimed over him after he had established this hold as a result of ‎his victim having succumbed to temptation the first time.‎
This is the deeper meaning of the Mishnah in ‎‎Avot 2,1 where Rabbi Yehudah hanassi described what ‎is a successful course for man to follow in life as being to provide ‎‎“glory,” ‎תפארת‎ for His maker. The second part of Rabbi Yehudah’s ‎statement that man’s actions should also “confer glory on ‎האדם‎, ‎‎“the person having performed these deeds,” our author views as ‎meaning that man should appreciate that his “glory” consists in ‎being able to do what no angel can do, i.e. serve the Lord and ‎provide Him with pleasure due to his having had to overcome ‎obstacles in his desire to serve his Maker. This is the “glory” G’d ‎had bestowed on man. If you were to say that Rabbi Yehudah ‎ascribes this “glory” as emanating from “man,” i.e. ‎מן האדם‎, what ‎Rabbi Yehudah meant by the word ‎מן‎, “from,” is “that it ‎originates from,” i.e. man’s glory originates in the very fact that ‎he is “man,” equipped with choices so that making the right ‎choice results in joy in heaven as well as on earth.‎

"A river comes out of Eden to irrigate the garden;” compare on Avot 2,1 ‎הוי זהיר במצוה קלה ‏כבחמורה‎, “be as meticulous concerning the performance of commandments deemed as ‎inconsequential, as you are with the performance of commandments deemed of great ‎significance, since you do not know the amount of reward in store for any of the commandments.” ‎Our sages explained that the author of this saying referred to the amount of satisfaction that the ‎performance of each commandment gives to the Creator. We mortals have no way of gauging ‎what ranks high in the esteem of the lawgiver. The only thing that we know definitely about this is ‎that as a result of the satisfaction that G’d derived from our mitzvah performance He will ‎give us opportunities to perform more commandments. When a father hears words of wisdom ‎from his son, he encourages him to come up with more wise comments. Similarly, when G’d ‎derived pleasure and satisfaction from the deeds of one of His “children,” He encourages that ‎‎“child” to continue to come up with intelligent questions and answers.<‎br>‎Eden, this describes the pleasure derived by G’d from His children’s words of Torah and ‎performance of His commandments, whereas the word ‎גן‎, “garden,” is a reference to the various ‎levels at which Torah can be studied, i.e. just as a garden contains many flowers, each of which ‎having a distinct appearance and pleasing aroma. The words of Torah His children speak by means ‎of which they provide spiritual irrigation in all the four directions of the earth, are alluded to by: ‎‎“the river splitting into four heads,” in our verse.‎
Performance of the commandments is perceived as “irrigating” the brain (cranium) that consists of ‎‎4 cavities, one of them being a cavity divided into two parts. This “stream” channels this inspiration ‎directly from G’d, and branches out into 4 “rivers,” each channeling inspiration to the four lobes of ‎the brain that fill these cavities. Each branch feeds the appropriate lobe, according to its function. ‎The word ‎עדן‎ describes the region from which ‎תענוג‎, pleasurable experiences emanate. The word ‎גן‎ in this allegory includes the various disciplines comprising Torah study, commonly known as ‎‎peshat, plain meaning of the text, drush, allegorical meaning, homily, remez, ‎allusion, hint, and sod, mystical aspects. Keeping this in mind, we can understand why the ‎‎mishnah quoted began with a warning, i.e. ‎הוי‎ ‎זהיר‎, “be careful to discern,” ‎seeing that the same mishnah told us that we do not know how the various ‎commandments rate in terms of the reward for those who perform them. Since we do not know, ‎how are we to distinguish between what is weighty, and what is relatively less weighty in the eyes ‎of G’d? Most likely the answer is that the commandments described as ‎קלה‎ are the ones that we ‎can find opportunities to perform, such as studying Torah, whereas the ones described as ‎חמורה‎, ‎are those that a person may have few opportunities to perform in a lifetime, or no opportunity at ‎all. ‎
‎[Since mitzvah performance is incumbent both on the individual and the entire nation, we each ‎share in the performance of those who do have an opportunity to perform those, such as the ‎levirate marriage, to name just one. Ed.]‎
The author of the mishnah warns not to use the fact that some mitzvot can be ‎fulfilled all the time as an excuse to postpone fulfilling same, as we do not know how even these ‎‎mitzvot rate in terms of the reward in store for us.‎

Another approach to the allegory of: “river, garden, and ‘Eden.’” It is well known that every Jew is ‎obligated to acquire and maintain good character traits and to make them second nature. By doing ‎so he provides G’d with satisfaction. When serving his Creator by personifying these positive ‎virtues, he enables the Creator to ”boast” of His creatures, [as for instance we find when G’d ‎‎“boasted” to Satan about the piety of Job. (Job 1,8) Ed.] These “virtues” are described in ‎‎Avot 2,1 as ”in the eyes of his peers.” The author of the mishnah, Rabbi ‎‎Yehudah hanassi, uses the expression ‎תפארת לעושיה‎, to describe that man’s ‎Creator can use this as “boasting” or justifying His having created the human species. When ‎reading these words superficially we must wonder why G’d is interested i.e. in “need” of our ‎actions, seeing He has myriads of angels ready to do His bidding. However, the very fact that His ‎people, the Jewish people, who have been assigned the “lower” portion of the universe as their ‎habitat with all the disadvantages that are prevalent in that region, distinguish themselves by their ‎loyal service to Him nonetheless, is something extraordinary, that cannot be compared with ‎angels. This is what Rabbi Yehudah hanassi had in mind when he described loyal service to ‎G’d by His free-willed creature, man, as being ‎תפארת לו מן האדם‎, “something glorious for Him ‎performed by man.” G’d certainly has reason to “boast” about such devotion when telling Satan ‎that in spite of his activities as seducer and spoiler, there are people who have not been deterred ‎in their loyalty to Their Creator. Genesis 2,10-14 describes this whole process of man being ‎encouraged by G’d to develop the appropriate virtues and how having acquired them his Creator ‎derives great satisfaction from that. The simile used by the Torah of describing man’s watering ‎G’d’s “garden” read: “worlds,” as something that He takes pride in, is therefore a well chosen ‎euphemism.‎