Resolutions & Simplicity

(Painting by Avinoam Shemesh)

I asked a friend before Rosh Hashana one year what mitzva or hanhaga tova (good practice) he planned to take on for the new year. He replied, "I am not going to take on anything new. This year I am going to abide by all my past resolutions."

Being fully cognizant of the level on which he was holding, he felt that he wasn't doing all the things he currently did in the most optimal manner. Perhaps he also understood that if he resolved to do something new at this stage he could easily boomerang right out of it just as quickly as he started once the thrill of its newness wore off; that the desire to do more in this case derived from the yetzer hara not the yetzer tov.

Reflecting on my friend's answer to me, I can see that it reveals the essence of simplicity. A Jew who exhibits the quality of simplicity cuts through all external trappings and ulterior motivations and performs a mitzva for the simple reason that Hashem commanded him to do so; he takes the "old" and transforms it into the new.