Parashas Eikev – Reward and Reward
This week's sedra begins with Moshe continuing to encourage the nation to stay holy when they enter Eretz Yisrael. Having used previous tactics of reminding the nation of their previous downfalls (mainly in Parashas Devarim) and also by inspiring them with a repetition of the Ten Commandments and The Shema (last week, Parashas Vaeschanan)... Moshe appears to use a new plan of action at the start of this week's sedra with him spelling out the rewards which Hashem would bestow upon the people if they “hearken to these ordinances... observe and perform them” [7:12]. We therefore find contained within the opening possukim of our sedra, various promises of worldly benefits which Hashem will give to us if we keep his Torah. According to the mefarshim these rewards can be broken up into ten blessings which alludes to observing the Ten Commandments, which form the basis of all mitzvos. These ten blessings are;
The Chofetz Chaim notes that in the pasuk (11:19) of Shema velimadetem osam es beneichem ledaber bam (‘you shall teach them to your children to speak in them;’ referring to the teaching of Torah to one’s children), the word osam is written without a vav, which lends itself to be read as ‘atem.’ Commenting on the availability of this alternative reading, the Chofetz Chaim points out that this reading would have the pasuk say ‘you should teach yourselves.’ A father should not settle for merely teaching one’s kids Torah, but has to learn Torah themselves. In fact, the person who is best equipped to transfer Torah to the next generation is someone who is enveloped with a love and appreciation of Torah themselves. The best way to fill a new, empty cup with Torah is to be overflowing with Torah yourself.
There's a bit of a discrepancy in one of our psukim this week. 11;12 says that the Land of Israel is "a land which HaShem your G-D seeks always, always are the eyes of HaShem your G-D on it from the beginning of THE year (HAshana) until the end of year (shana)." Why does it say that beginning of THE year but just the end of year - why not the end of THE year? The Satmar Rav gave an answer in the realm of drush. Every year, at the beginning of the year we say to ourselves that this is going to be THE year - i will fix myself, achieve x, y and z, and become a better person. But at the end of the year, it's just shana; just another year. Nothing great was achieved and it was not THE year that you expected. He continues that in nushach sefard kedusha we ask HaShem to redeem us and the acharis kerieshis - the end of the year should be like the beginning of the year. Ie that at the end of the year we will be able to look back and say this really was a great year; it was THE year that I envisioned at the beginning of the year,
There is an especially enlightning Targum this week which is worth focusing on. The Torah calls the idol worship and gold & silver of the (imoral) nations of the land "to'eva" - which literally means abomination. The Targum translates [/explains] this word with the word 'merachaka' - meaning that which creates a distance. The idea is that those sins described as to'eva simply those which create greatest distance between us and HaShem - a bad thing. The reason for this is that if one looks through the sins described as to'eva, one can see that they involve taking a power/strength which ordinarily is to be used for high spiritual output, and instead using it for bad. Our example in our sedra involves taking the spiritual power of Eretz Yisrael and using it for negative - as places of avodah zarah, etc. This term to'eva is also used (gemarra shabbes 10a) to describe someone who uses tefillah to escape from their obligation of learning torah - again an example of using an immense spiritual power (tefillah) for bad. pG we should use mitzvos as mitzvos and opportunities to get closer to HaShem. Amen!
In last week's dvar Torah on parshat Ekev, we quoted Rav Yisrael Salanter who said: The longest distance in the world is between a person's mind and their heart." We said that this explains why some people now what's right, but they don't put it into practice. Hashem knows how we work, so He told us "You should know today and return it to your hearts that Hashem is God in Heaven above and on earth below - there is no other" (Devarim 4:39). You see it's not enough to know what's right.... we have to return it to our hearts for it to make any difference or impact on our actions. We have to internalise it.
Question is.... how do we do that? I only said what needs to be done. I never mentioned the techniques that we can use to actually bridge that gap between the head and the heart - to shorten the "longest distance in the world."
So that's what we are going to talk about today. The Rabbis who founded the Mussar movement in Europe that dealt with character refinement and making yourself a better person teach us numerous methods about how to internalise what we already
Have you ever met someone who knew right from wrong but was still a bad person?
Sure you have. We all have. And it's hard to understand sometimes. If they knew what is right, why did they do the wrong thing? It seems illogical! It just doesn't add up.
But the truth is, we are all exactly like this person, even if only to a smaller degree. We often know that we should be acting differently than we actually are, whether in the way we treat our friends and family, or in our financial affairs, or in our relationship with Hashem and Torah observance. We all know that there are things we should be working on and improving on.... but often, it just doesn't happen. And somehow, just like our friend we spoke about earlier, we land up living a life that is different than the way we know it should be
The Posuk in Devarim 10:12 says "And now, O Israel, what does the Lord, your God, demand of you? Only to fear the Lord, your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, and to worship the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul," This verse seems difficult to understand. Hashem is ONLY asking us to love and fear Him, as if these levels were easy to attain!!
So why does the Torah make it sound so easy?
The gemora says that we learn from this possuk that one is obligated to make 100 brochos every day. מה ה אלקיך שואל מעמך don't read מה read מאה 100. If you spell it מאה then there are 100 letters in the posuk. The Maharsha explains this gemara that if one is particular to say 100 borchos a day with real Kavannah he will attain the
