Av 22, 5776/August 26, 2016
"And He... fed you with manna [and] your clothing did not wear out upon you, nor did your foot swell these forty years." (Deuteronomy 8:3-4) In this week's Torah reading,Eikev, Moshe is describing to the children of Israel G-d's special care for them throughout their forty year desert sojourn. All apparent dangers which came to threaten Israel throughout their journey from Egypt to the promised land were merely measures employed by G-d to edify His people and teach them that He is watching over them. Food from heaven that you don't need to labor for, clothing that never grows threadbare and and a path beneath your feet that never allows your feet to ache or swell no matter the day's passage... this is heaven on earth, literally, a Garden of Eden, where man's needs are entirely the responsibility of G-d !
But things will be different, Moshe is saying, once you enter into the land of Israel. G-d's providence will continue to protect Israel, but in a different way. Man's daily bread, his garments and shelter will all be on his own shoulders, his own responsibility. Is this a step down on the ladder that connects heaven and earth? Is this a threat to Israel, intended or otherwise? Should the revelation of this knowledge deter Israel from desiring to enter the land?
The opposite, of course, is true. When Adam, the first man, blessed with the instantaneous provision of all his needs, ate from the fruit of the tree of knowledge it was not so much of an act of rebellion or rejection of G-d's love, but a yearning for a measure of independence and responsibility.
G-d granted man his wish, and the first things man needed to acquire in order to survive in the new world he brought into being were "garments of skin," (Genesis 3:21), a warning about "thorns and thistles" (ibid 3:18) which will grow underfoot, and the decree that "with the sweat of your face you shall eat bread." (ibid 3:19) All these hardships are the real-life conditions for man's independence.
For forty years in the wilderness G-d re-instituted for Israel a Garden of Eden-like cloak of protection. The manna, Miriam's well and the cloud of glory all served to swathe Israel in an almost embryonic protected environment. Is it G-d's plan now to remove this protective cloak and re-institute for Israel a thankless life of thorns and thistles, a constant fight against starvation, a daily struggle to survive?
No. What awaits Israel within the land is a place of shared responsibility, of mutual care and concern. Israel will abide G-d's will by performing His commandments, and G-d will abide man's will by allowing the people to work and to prosper, to toil and to receive the reward of their labors. The land of Israel is the perfect infrastructure in which the children of Israel can do G-d's will and flourish. Rain and fertile soil, native fruit trees and grains, mountains of copper and stones of iron...
Who really wants to wear the same shirt for forty years? Eat the same ready-made food every meal of the day? Put on the same pair of shoes every morning upon getting up from bed? We yearn for our ability to make our own choices, be our 'own people,' earn our own keep in the world. And it is through our hard-earned individuality that we most fervently and whole-heartedly serve G-d . The land of Israel that G-d has promised Israel is a unique patch of land in which both man and G-d can dwell, side-by-side, in peace and harmony. And if man and G-d can live together in peace and harmony, then maybe just maybe, man and man can also live side-by-side in peace and harmony with one another.
This Shabbat's prophetic reading from the book of Isaiah, one of the seven prophetic readings of consolation and promise that we will be reading as we approach Rosh HaShana, says it simply and exquisitely: "For HaShem shall console Zion, He shall console all its ruins, and He shall make its desert like a paradise and its wasteland like the garden of HaShem; joy and happiness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and a voice of song." (Isaiah 51:3)
-The Temple Instutute
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