Good Deeds and Sins – One at the Expense of the Other
A man I knew once came to ask for my blessing. I knew that he had stolen a huge sum of money and had not yet paid it back. But this man did not see any contradiction between stealing and asking for a tzaddik’s blessing.
The man did not see anything wrong, but I did. Chazal teach us in Avot (4:2), “One mitzvah leads to another, and one sin leads to another.” How can a person do a mitzvah while involved in an aveirah? Shouldn’t the mitzvah pull him in the direction of more mitzvot?
The answer is that not all mitzvot lead to more mitzvot. Only mitzvot done perfectly have the power to draw a person to do more mitzvot. But mitzvot done for personal pride, or half-heartedly, do not have this power.
