"Whatever the Almighty created in this world, He created only for His own glory" _{(Ethics of the Fathers, end)}

"The Almighty does not grant a person greatness until He tests him with something small, and then He raises him up to greatness" _{(Shemot Rabba 2, 3)}

    In his book Mesillat Yesharim (The Pathway of the Upright; chapter 1), Rabbi Moshe Hayyim Luzatto wrote that a person must take punctilious care in performing the commandments or in worshiping the Almighty, just like the care taken by jewelers in weighing gold or pearls because of their great value, for the results of his performance of the commandments or of such worship are themselves of inestimable perfection and value. The greatness of a person is measured by the care he takes in doing things, especially where people are generally negligent. In this way our Sages have explained the verse (Psalms 49): "Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, when the iniquity of my supplanters encompasseth me?" - this relates to the transgressions one regards with scorn. King David said: 'Master of the universe, I do not fear the weighty commandments of the Torah - precisely because they are weighty. But I fear the lighter ones, for I may have violated them because of their lightness. For You have said: Take as much care in observing a light commandment as you do in observing a weighty one!' King David was indeed tested with light commandments and was not found wanting, and so was selected to be the Leader of Israel. In Shemot Rabba (2, 3) we find the following: "Now Moshe was shepherding the flocks of his father-in-law Jethro, and he arrived in the wake of his sheep at Horeb". The midrash seems not to understand why Moshe's shepherding the flock was why he was deemed worthy of becoming the Leader of Israel, for shepherds are considered bad people, and the rule applied to them is that if their lives are in danger, one need not save them, for they are thought to be sinners who let their flocks graze in fields belonging to others. For this reason, the Sages have interpreted the words "Now Moshe was shepherding" in connection with the verse (Proverbs 30): "Every word of G-d is tested" - The Almighty does not grant a person greatness until He tests him with something small, and then He raises him up to greatness. Here we have two people of great stature who were tested with small things, found to be faithful, and raised up to greatness. The Almighty tested David with sheep, and he led them into the wilderness - to keep them from robbery… This shows that David lived according to the mishnah: "One should not breed sheep in the Land of Israel." With Moshe, we are told "and he led the sheep past the wilderness" - to keep them from robbery. Thus the Almighty took him to lead the people of Israel, as we read (Psalms 77): "Thou didst lead Thy people like a flock by the hand of Moshe and Aaron". Why then is a person tested specifically with something small?

• The Truth of the Matter: Testing a person with something small comes to teach us of one's truthful approach to the matter, for large things by their very nature stir people up and so cannot serve as a proof of this. Only if one is punctilious in his treatment of everything, even if it is something small, or a matter of no import so that does not stir people up, can his behavior be a true test of one's attitude to that matter. For this reason, according to Rabbeinu Jonah, the binding of Isaac upon the altar cannot be considered Abraham's tenth trial, but rather the fact that he couldn't find a place to bury Sarah and had to buy such a place at a high price and with much effort. It was this test with an unimportant matter [after he had already been tested with Isaac's binding, a big matter and a great trial, he was still tested with this smaller matter as well] that was his real test (according to the late Rabbi Bezalel Zholty).
• The Importance of Everything in the World: Wholeness is possible only when one is careful with every little detail, for even an expensive and sophisticated machine will not operate, if even a single, tiny, valueless screw is not in its proper place. One must not scorn anything in this world, for everything has its function and occupies its place. Thus Jacob taught Issachar, "a large-boned ass", that the braying of an ass brought him into the world, for when Rachel arranged with Leah that Jacob would be with her in return for the mandrakes, Leah became aware that Jacob had come in from the fields only when his ass brayed, and then she went out to meet him and called to him - and so the tribe of Issachar found its way into this world - the tribe of Torah - by means of something of no value.

Similarly, a story is told of a bone that was lying in the road. People moved it aside, but it made its way back to the road; once again, it was kicked aside, and once again it came back. The people who saw it concluded that this bone must have a mission. And so it happened, that the bone found its way back to the very same place, when the king's courier came by. He tripped over the bone, fell, was injured and died. When his body was searched, letters were found preaching hatred of the Jews! In our own times, we have become more and more conscious of the power of little things. There are certain medicines that are measured out in milligrams. If the weight is precise, the remedy is effective; if not - it is not effective, and if an overly large dose is given, it can even be fatal - and it's all a matter of milligrams. Another example: a tiny blood clot in an artery (i.e., thrombosis) can certainly be fatal.

A great person, as we have noted, is careful with every detail. Just as a craftsman is tested with details, an artist knows whether to put a line or a point or only a shadow in its right place, or how to combine colors in the proper way, so too in matters of the spirit. A great person knows that everything must be done perfectly, down to the tiniest detail.

The oil used in Bible times for anointing kings was supposed to be made with spices of various weights. However, the weight of the spice known as "calamus" was expressed in the Torah only as follows: "half of it - two hundred fifty". In other words, the total amount was five hundred. Rashi explains (Exodus 30:24): 'Why is its half-weight given? So the Torah decreed - to bring it in two halves in order to render it necessary to weigh it twice, for people do not weigh things precisely". Why, then, does it have to be done in precisely this fashion? It should now be clear that it comes to teach us that even a miniscule amount can be meaningful.

In our material world, too, it is true that everything has some effect, and a small item can change history. The example often given is that of a small nail that was missing from the shoe of the officer's horse. As a result the shoe fell away, and the horse could not serve the officer in the decisive battle. As a consequence the battle was lost, and all of history was altered by virtue of a tiny nail that was missing. This is even more valid in the spiritual world. Each higher degree of perfection is a higher spiritual step. We learn in the Talmud (Hagiga 9b) that one who studies a chapter a hundred times is not the same as one who does so a hundred and one times. This is so even though a person who has studied something a hundred times obviously knows it very well. Yet one more time generates a difference.

A story is told of a writer of the school of the "Enlightenment" who had composed a poem about the importance of the Hebrew letter yod. This letter was missing from the name of a husband known by the name of Hillel. The writ of divorcement he gave his wife had his name spelled in full, with the yod, and then he left his hometown with his destination unknown. The woman was unable to remarry for the rest of her life because of the missing yod. The "enlightened" writer made use of this story to denigrate Jewish law [the story is patently untrue, because such a writ of divorcement is valid retrospectively, and the writer's objective was merely to besmirch] by claiming that because of the lack of a yod in the name Hillel the woman was doomed to spend the rest of her life in misery. Now writers often send their writings to wealthy people who reward them monetarily. This writer did so as well, and sent his poem to a rich man who, as it turned out, was a wealthy Jew. This man was enraged, and decided to teach the "enlightened" writer a lesson. He sent him a check for an enormous sum (which he was able to cover). When the check reach the writer, it made him very happy and he went to the bank to cash it. The check was processed as always, but since the sum on it was so great it had to receive the approval of the bank manager. When the check reached the bank manager, he had it bounced. Everyone asked: what's wrong with this check? Everything seems to be fine - the name, the sum, the date and the signature. But the bank manger replied: We have a rule that every check for a sum so large that it requires the approval of the bank manager must have a secret mark on it - but on this check the mark does not appear. In this manner the writer learned that a single missing mark transforms a check for a fabulous sum into a simple piece of paper. This is of course true of spiritual matters as well. Every little detail is important (the story was told by the late Rabbi Yehezkel Sarna).

I heard a similar story from my own mentor, Rabbi Hayyim Shmuelevich, about a student at the Volozhyn Torah academy who studied there but was unable to fit in there. He once said to his friends at the academy that it was a good thing there was no bell in a synagogue - as there is, l'havdil, in a church. His friends wondered what he was getting at, so he said: Were there a bell in a synagogue, there would have been another tractate in the Talmud, which would explain how such a bell was to be made, of what material it was to be made, where it was to be affixed, who would ring it, how many times it would be rung and a lot of other details as well, as is true of any matter of Jewish law. He had evidently not understood the greatness of the Jewish people, who take great care with every detail of Jewish law, and so have a compendium, a Shulhan Arukh, that teaches us how every thing is to be performed perfectly.