We all know the story where Noah gets drunk.. As he was lying there and his son Cham saw him, acted an improper way and got cursed. Shem Yefet, on the other hand, take a cloak put it on their shoulders, walk backwards not to see their father in disgrace, and they cover their father. This they did not see their father's nakedness.
The Midrash Rabba in Bereshit tells us that Shem initiated the mitzvah (as it says Vayikach/And he took, not Vaykchu/and they took), and Yefet followed. Therefore, Shem earned the merit for merit reward that Avraham Avinu and the Jewish people got the Talet and Mitzvah of Tzizit. When we wear that, it’s our reward for the covering of Noah. Yefet, on the other hand, who only followed, got a different reward.
Gog and Magog are the descendants of Yefet (if we look at the Perasha , it describes all of his descendants) and after the final war of Gog and Magog in the future, they're going get the reward that, as wicked as they were, they'll be buried.
The covering of burial is their measure for measure reward.
So it's interesting- Two people are both involved in the same act- the covering of their father. But one of them gets a physical reward, which is just a one time thing, and the other gets a spiritual award which lasts forever. And Rabbenu Bachyeh says that we see from here that it means Shem put more effort into the Mitzvah. than his brother Yefet.
So what decides our reward?
It’s an important bitachon concept that every for act that we do, we're rewarded, and the reward doesn't come immediately. The reward for Talet is not even in this world. The reward is in the future.
So it's an indirect reward.
And possibly, the reason why it says that we put Talet on (and the Talet is there to remind us of all the Mitzvot, as it says Tzizit reminds of of all the Mitzvot) is to teach us this important lesson: When you're doing a mitzvah, don't just do it. Give it your all. Put that extra effort in. Put that extra care in, because like the Hovot Halevavot says, there's something called Hovot HaEvarim/ requirements of our limbs, which are external acts, and there are Hovot Halevavot/ the requirements of the heart. What separates people doing mitzvot?
Rav Wolbe once said, the Arizal shook his Lulav and Etrog, the Rambam shook his Lulav and Etrog, and we shake a Lulav and Etrog, and it's all the same Lulav and Etrog. The difference is not in the action. The difference is in the thoughts, in the feelings. And that's true about everything.
In God's measure for measure, He's reading our minds. He's reading our hearts, He’s reading our emotions. To a bystander, it would look like these two brothers were equal. So what if one mentioned it first?
When it came to two other brothers, Kayin was the one that came up with the korban first and Hevel copied him. So being the second to follow doesn't automatically demote you.
But, it’s important that aren’t the one that's doing the Mitzvah just to be yotzeh, to fulfill his obligation. We want to do it with that extra feeling, because that is what gives us an eternal, everlasting reward.
It’s the same with Shabbat. We all keep Shabbat. We refrain from the 39 Melachot. We go to pray, we eat…. But there are different ways to do Shabbat. The Kuzari says ( as I mentioned in another venue) that we get rewarded for the simcha of Shabbat, but it's no different than prayer. He says, prayer without kavana is like a body without a soul. So too, the simcha of Shabbat without kavana is like a body without a soul. And that kavana is everything in the world. So let us do the Mitzvot and believe ( it’s 1 of the 13 principles) in reward and punishment and understand that reward comes from the amount of effort, feeling and emotion that we put into a Mitzvah. And although two people may be seemingly doing the same thing, it's all the difference in the world.
Have a Shabbat Shalom.