Rabbi Shimshon Dovid Pinkus
“Love your neighbor as yourself” (Vayikra, 19:18)
We see people observing mitzvot with inspiration and enthusiasm. They prepare to fulfill a mitzvah, and when the moment comes, they try to do so as precisely and as well as possible. (One example is the observance of the mitzvot of the past Pesach: how much time and effort people spend preparing for it, how hard they try to ensure that not a crumb of chametz remains in the house, how enthusiastically they—especially the children—burn the chametz, and how inspired they are as they read the Haggadah and eat matzah during the Seder. — translator's note.)
Then it is puzzling: why do people behave so differently when fulfilling the mitzvah of gemilut chasadim—helping others? Here we do not see the enthusiasm that accompanies the observance of other mitzvot.
Why, then, have this mitzvah and others like it, such as “love your neighbor as yourself,” fared so poorly?
The reason is that with mitzvot such as chesed, loving one's neighbor, and the like, there is a natural desire to perform them in addition to the mitzvah itself. Naturally, when we fulfill them, we do so out of an innate inner feeling rather than because they are mitzvot. This is what leads to a shortcoming in the way they are fulfilled.
This applies to many aspects of our lives. For example, a person is driving and considers doing something that carries a degree of danger. As they think it over, they assess the chances of an accident occurring, G-d forbid. If they thought about the risk of violating the commandment “and guard your souls very carefully,” everything would be quite different! People may disregard danger, since that is in their nature, but the prospect of eating a piece of pork is terrifying to any Jew.
It is well known that Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik ruled very leniently in halacha when it came to fasting. His son Rabbi Yitzchak Ze'ev explained that his father was not being lenient; on the contrary, he was being very stringent—about danger to life!