What does “don't be like servants who serve for a reward” mean?
By Rabbi Shalom Landau.
Rabbi Landau explains the Mishna “Al tihyu ka'avadim ha'meshamshin es ha'rav al menas l'kabel pras” as a call to do good because it is right. “Don't be like the servants who serve only to get a reward. Do what's right.”
He applies it to everyday giving. Be good to people, he says, “but because it's right, not because you're starving for their approval.” The thank-you is a reward too, and if that is why you give, you will always be disappointed.
In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau writes that the “reward” in the Mishna includes any payment from outside: money, status, or simply a grateful look. Doing good to hear “thank you” is serving for a reward, and people-pleasing is an exact modern form of it. A good deed gets its value from the deed itself, not from the other person's reaction.
Related concepts: Freedom you can hand over · Spirituality
In A Soul at Peace: Serving Without Waiting for a Reward
Going deeper: Rabbi Landau's teaching, level by level
Surface claim
Serve because it's right, not to receive a reward, including the reward of gratitude.
What may be behind it
In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau writes that the one who chases the thank-you is never satisfied, because his deed was built on “what will people say.”
Deepest human truth
Do what's right and you will never need the thanks.
More questions from this teaching
More answers: Boundaries, Healing, and Emotional Resilience · All questions · Questions about Rabbi Landau and Rivnitz