Bottom line: Judaism has got lots of commandments.
This is a religion replete with all sorts of mitzvahs and rituals. In fact, every aspect of a Jew’s life is suffused (unless refused) with these numerous commandments. By the laws of Pesach, the commentator, Sefer HaChinuch (mitzvah 16) asks the question of every modern day rebellious Yeshiva high-school student, and get this, its not shomair negiah! He asks, “Why did Hashem give us so much to do on Pesach? Wouldn’t we get the point through one commemoration, and thus not be forgotten out of the mouths of our descendants?” The answer to this question and the seemingly numerous commands in a broader sense is that “ha’adam nifal kfi peulosuv”, namely, a person is influenced according to his actions! (ibid).
Basically, “You are what you do!” – (a little more accurate than the popular cliché “you are what you eat.”) If you just watch bad movies all day, that’s great- you can show your friends that you know all these great movie lines by heart. Hey and you know what? God doesn’t really care about your movie knowledge (especially the bad ones like Waterworld and other similar flops) if it results in you doing nothing. “You are what you do”- so if you waste your time doing nothing, the effect will ultimately be counterproductive, unless that was your goal all along.
Keep in mind though, that every person is a product of their environment, and our environment is pretty messed up, which, I guess, actually explains a lot. We are all creatures of habit; it just depends on what those habits are and how we develop and integrate them into our lives. That’s where the importance of being steeped in mitzvahs comes in. The more you do, the greater the chances of those actions seeping in and elevating you to a drug-free higher purpose.
The Rebbe of Slonim has a novel p’shat on the pasuk (Devarim 10:20) “U’bo Sidbak”. The pasuk is generally understood as “in Him (Hashem) you shall cleave”, however the Rebbe interprets “U’bo” as “in it”, as referring to the Torah (and mitzvahs) that a person should cling to. It can be learned from here that there is a serious element of a “hands-on” approach towards doing mitzvahs. There is no remote control option for mitzvahs. You have to do actively perform. Last I checked in the poskim, you can’t fulfill bikur cholim with an e-mail or 1-800-flowers. There is an active process of participation that must take place. It is not sufficient to passively sit back and be a “good Jew” at heart. We already have enough of those; you can find them seated in the back of most shuls talking during davening.
One shouldn’t become complacent and think, “well, as long as I steer clear of evil ways, I’ll be all right.” The Mesillas Yesharim zaps you for that as well, and states that a person’s earthliness exercises a seriously strong downward pull towards inactivity and nonperformance. (See couch potato or local high-schooler) Consequently, if a person “does not strengthen himself to pursue mitzvahs and hold on to them, he will certainly lack them”. (Perek 6) The Torah demands of us to be more than just being once-a-year Jews who come to shul on Rosh Hashanah and disappear from the fold until the next year. The reason is because without performing mitzvahs on a regular basis, a person will inevitably stray from the path of Torah values.
When smokers desire to quit smoking, some discover when they first kick the habit, that they require another means of stimulation to substitute for the cigarettes. Some chew packs of gum, while others find themselves constantly sucking on candies. The reason for this is that it is difficult to immediately terminate a behavioral pattern. It is not enough to simply turn from the evil ways and abstain from them, for without some “good” to focus on, a person is traveling on a downward spiral towards self-destruction. The same is true in relation to doing mitzvahs. Chassidus teaches that one is obligated to not only be Sur mey’rah, but to actively practice V’assay tov in order to fill its void.
What comes out from this is that there is actual purpose behind all these mitzvahs. The goal is to spiritually grow to loftier levels and connect with HaK’BHu. Other purposes include people making lots of money from them, i.e lulav business, matzah factories etc but that’s another discussion, So get out there and bang out some mitzvahs!