See, I present before you today a brachah and a kelalah. The brachah: that you listen to Hashem’s commandments…[1]
Chazal[2] see in this pasuk a defense of Divine justice. “Now that HKBH announced this at Sinai, [we can appreciate that] ‘It is not from the dictate of the Most High that evils and good emerge.’[3] Rather, bad things happen because of those who do evil; good things because of those who do good.”
To understand what they mean by this, we need to first go elsewhere. The gemara[4] states that one who wishes to live needs to kill himself, and one who wishes to die should sustain himself. By this they mean that to gain a full life in olam habo, it is necessary for a person to deny himself the fullness of life in this world. On the other hand, one who has no issue with passing from this world without continuing it in the next can focus on pampering himself in this existence.
This sounds a bit Spartan. Is it really true that enjoying all the pleasures and comforts of this world – which can be done entirely with permissible pleasures – will put him on a one-lane highway towards spiritual self-destruction? In fact, such pursuits need not spell a person’s doom. But they usually do! They needn’t of necessity do so, but the usual trajectory for a person on such a path does not wind up in a good place. As the Torah warns, “Jeshurun became fat and rebelled.”[5]
On the other hand, Chazal[6] elsewhere speak approvingly of a person who drinks wine to clear his mind, and thereby fulfil Hashem’s expectations of him with more deliberation and focus. His drinking is not a form of self-indulgence, but the very opposite. He enjoys one of the luxuries of life specifically to make him a better servant of Hashem! A person can successfully do this when he has spent many years serving Hashem, and focuses all his time and energy on Torah thoughts. He can feel confident that taking of this world will not cause him to forfeit the next.
We can see the exactitude of Chazal[7] in their famous description of the way to acquire Torah. “This is the way/derech of Torah: bread with salt, a measured amount of water, reposing on the ground…” It is not the description of Torah life, so much as the derech, the road towards it. On the way to acquire Torah, a person must be willing to give up conveniences, and live with bare necessities. However, once he has acquired Torah, he may avail himself of some of the pleasures of this world without doing damage to his spiritual self. He will have learned along the way to use them responsibly, in no greater quantity than he can safely handle. As Chazal continue, “He will be happy in this world, and it will be good for him in the next.” This means that he will be fortunate to be able to enjoy the blessings of this world without fear that they will diminish his portion in the next.
We are now ready for a different understanding of our pasuk. The Torah warns us to take heed of the dual nature of every brachah. The blessing can be utilized in a positive manner – but it can also easily turn into a kelalah. It remains fully a brachah when we “listen to Hashem’s commandments,” but sours when we do not.
We also cannot complain that every one of Hashem’s brachos is a Trojan horse, carrying within it a virus that affects all who come in contact with it. We should not complain that Hashem gives us brachos that are both good and bad at the same time. The brachah and kelalah of our pasuk are not hopelessly intermingled with each other, having been designed that way by Hashem. Rather, they are functionally separate. The negative part of any brachah “is not from the dictate of the Most High.” It is entirely dependent upon us to determine what impact each of His brachos will have. If we approach the brachah properly, no kelalah comes along for the ride.
- Devarim 11:26-27 ↑
- Devarim Rabbah 4:3 ↑
- Eichah 3:38 ↑
- Tamid 32a ↑
- Devarim 32:15 ↑
- Eruvin 65a ↑
- Avos 6:4 ↑