If baseball is a game of inches, with the minutest of distances or time frames spelling the difference between jubilant victory and crushing defeat, Jewish law can seem like a game of millimeters, or tefachim, or amos, or chalakim. Within halacha, precision is critical, and the fastidious among us enjoy ample opportunities to exult in exactitude: Shabbos ends no earlier than 6:49 p.m. The canvas walls of the sukkah may sway no more than 10.67 inches. Each tekiah blast of the shofar must last no less than 3.4 seconds. The top 10% of the esrog must not have any defects. Details, details.

One might characterize this cold obsessiveness as missing the point of observance. After all, רחמנא לבא בעי, God desires heartfelt service and emotional investment, and this guy is inspecting his romaine under an electron microscope. How can this be what Hashem wants of us?

Rav Soloveichik articulated this challenge to halacha and formulated a powerful response:

There are modern Jews, who, with genuine sensitivity and earnestness are heard to ask: We are looking to experience God and you give us a Shulchan Aruch, telling us when to daven, what not to eat, and how to conduct our marital lives. Why should we bog down in minutiae when we are searching for the infinite?

God is found in what you call minutiae. Far from being a pejorative term, minutiae are exactly what Judaism is about. Judaism is not concerned with transcendental experiences like some of the Eastern religions - but with the here and now. לא נתנה תורה למלאכי השרת; Torah is this worldly, and is not preoccupied with otherworldliness. Instantaneous devoutness which envelops the soul only is not the Torah way.

The Rav is teaching us that we find Hashem not in our subjective experimentation but in the concrete expectations enshrined in Jewish law. One cannot claim to be "religious" without being "observant." Rigorous observance is our only vehicle for religious experience, and the alternate paths attempted for millennia simply do not bond us to our Creator; they fail the test of time. 

So the divine is in the details. The esrog with the severed pitom is worthless; the esrog with the intact pitom could cost hundreds of dollars. Green or yellow, smooth or bumpy, we search for the most beautiful mitzvah objects. The esrog is referred to in the Torah as the פרי עץ הדר, the fruit of the beautiful tree, and the esrog represents our obsession with finding that perfect mitzvah object.

Nevertheless, the Gemara Shabbos 133b quotes an opinion that should be highly instructive to us:

דְּתַנְיָא: ״זֶה אֵלִי וְאַנְוֵהוּ״, הִתְנָאֵה לְפָנָיו בְּמִצְוֹת: עֲשֵׂה לְפָנָיו סוּכָּה נָאָה, וְלוּלָב נָאֶה, וְשׁוֹפָר נָאֶה, צִיצִית נָאָה, סֵפֶר תּוֹרָה נָאֶה, וְכָתוּב בּוֹ לִשְׁמוֹ בִּדְיוֹ נָאֶה, בְּקוּלְמוֹס נָאֶה, בְּלַבְלָר אוּמָּן, וְכוֹרְכוֹ בְּשִׁירָאִין נָאִין.

As it was taught in a baraita with regard to the verse: “This is my God and I will glorify Him [anveihu],” The Sages interpreted anveihu homiletically as linguistically related to noi, beauty, and interpreted the verse: Beautify yourself before Him in mitzvot. Make before Him a beautiful sukkah, a beautiful lulav, a beautiful shofar, beautiful tzitzis, beautiful parchment for a Torah scroll, and write in it in His name in beautiful ink, with a beautiful quill by an expert scribe, and wrap the scroll in beautiful silk fabric.

אַבָּא שָׁאוּל אוֹמֵר: ״וְאַנְוֵהוּ״ — הֱוֵי דּוֹמֶה לוֹ, מָה הוּא חַנּוּן וְרַחוּם — אַף אַתָּה הֱיֵה חַנּוּן וְרַחוּם

Abba Shaul says: Ve’anveihu should be interpreted as if it were written in two words: Ani vaHu, me and Him [God]. Be similar, as it were, to Him, the Almighty: Just as He is compassionate and merciful, so too should you be compassionate and merciful. 

The Gemara offers two starkly different interpretations of זֶה אֵלִי וְאַנְוֵהוּ, the first focusing on mitzvah objects, the second targeting our middos. Whenever the Gemara gives two answers, we must ask: What was deficient about the first answer, הִתְנָאֵה לְפָנָיו בְּמִצְוֹת, that compelled Abba Shaul to offer an alternative, הֱוֵי דּוֹמֶה לוֹ? Does Abba Shaul reject the institution of hiddur mitzvah and not believe we should have a splendid sukkah, a lovely lulav, or a shapely shofar? Certainly not! Abba Shaul is adding an additional ingredient necessary in the Jewish experience. This is not a machlokes tannaim; these complementary opinions represent the full scope of mitzvah observance.

Abba Shaul is addressing the opposite concern of Rav Soloveichik. Abba Shaul speaks to the Jew whose halachic attentiveness is limited to ritual improvement but who makes no move toward self-improvement. Because in our game of inches, as we meticulously measure the circumference of the matzah, or the length of the sleeve, if all our religion is concerned with beautiful objects, the self is neglected. Yes, the object must be beautiful, but Abba Shaul reminds us that the subject must be beautiful as well, with character traits that are modeled after those of Hashem. Just as He is compassionate and merciful, so too should you be compassionate and merciful.

Abba Shaul teaches us: Yes, honor the mitzvos by acquiring the most exquisite cheftza shel mitzvah. But don't neglect the gavra, the person who must also be refined and regal and bedecked in glorious character traits that befit a servant of Hashem. Acting with kindness and compassion is the truest way to decorate for the holiday, and it is a form of hiddur mitzvah that won't get packed away in a cardboard box and stored in the garage after Sukkos. Your sukkah guests may gape at your elaborate tapestries and floral displays, your exquisite place settings and culinary creations, but you know that the most beautiful things in your sukkah are sitting on rickety folding chairs, sharing words of Torah, reveling in the joy that is zman simchaseinu, as they gaze at the stars above.