The more love and fear [of God one has,] the more love one has of Torah and mitzvos. For love is reflected in the fulfillment—with all one’s heart, soul and wealth—of the wishes of one’s beloved. And the greater the love, the more the lover is willing to exert himself, even if it involves great inconvenience, and he willingly submits himself to shoulder a heavy yoke for many days. So, [too, all effort to fulfill Hashem’s will] should be insignificant in one’s eyes due to his love for his Creator, just as one acts in his love of money and other forms of [mundane] love. If only one would love Torah and mitzvos as he loves money, his wife, and his children! But if, [instead,] he engages in levity and idle speech, about him Scripture says: They have forsaken Me, the Source of living waters, to dig for themselves… broken cisterns (Yirmiyahu 2:13).
Fortunate is the person who is attuned to value the reward of a mitzvah that gives pleasure to his Maker, for “Better is one hour of Torah and good deeds in this world than the entire life of the World to Come” (cf. Avos 4:17). In particular, one needs motivation in a situation that involves monetary loss, that one not come to love money more than he loves his Creator. Whoever forsakes the service of his Creator, and refrains from the study of Torah or from some mitzvah that comes his way, for whatever reason, shows that he loves that thing more than the Creator—oh, how much contempt and wrath he deserves! So, in whatever worldly matters a person must engage, he should think about the purpose of what he is doing, that it be dedicated to facilitating his service of God, may His name be blessed. Indeed,] all of one’s actions should be dedicated for the sake of Heaven.
