Pirkei Avot 1:16

Pirkei Avot 1:16

"Rabban Gamliel said, make for yourself a rabbi, remove yourself from doubt, and do not give extra tithes due to estimation."

At first blush, this seems like advice to be precise in one's observance: get a rabbi to make sure you get it right.

At one level, that explanation seems reasonable.  But if that were the point of the mishna, what would be the point of telling us not to give extra tithes?  If the point were simply to make sure that we perform the mitzvot, then giving extra tithes would be harmless.  The way to make sense of the mishna is to see it as offering the opposite message: by reaching out for help in our observance, we can liberate ourselves from obessive observance.  There is no extra credit for giving extra tithes. There is no merit to obsessive observance.  G-d does not want us to becomes slaves to scrupulosity.  Certainly, we are to perform the mitzvot as best we can.  However by making ourselves a rabbi, we relieve ourselves from doubt, and free ourselves to live fully and with zest, not with religiosity.  As the previous mishna advises us, we need the mental energy to do much and to receive everyone with a cheerful face.