It is a good thing to know the reasons for the commandments, and not to perform them like “a commandment which one has been taught to perform”, as it is for this reason that Hashem became angry and said by means of the prophet Yeshayahu: “Seeing that these people have drawn near, they have honored me with their mouths and lips, but their hearts were far away from me, and their fear of me was just as a commandment which one has been taught to perform, therefore I will increase to make this people wonder many wonders and the wisdom of their wise men will be lost etc.” G-d forbid.
There are times when performing a commandment without knowing the reasons is like a body without a soul. One example of this is the commandment of tzitzis (fringes on a four-cornered garment), which Hashem commanded us and revealed its reason when he said, “And you shall see it, and you shall remember all of the commandments of Hashem”, “So that you shall remember all of my commandments”. If one does not actively remember all of the commandments, then one has not fulfilled the intent of his Creator. The same idea is true about putting Tefillin on and many other commandments. If one thinks about this more profoundly, one will see that one who does not know the reasons for the commandments, is almost “naked” from the commandments. And someone who has not the heart to understand, must ask, and “become dusty in the dust of the feet of wise men” in order to learn.
