QUESTIONS AND COMMENTARY ON PARASHAT ‘EQEV
1. Then I
will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the
latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil.
And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock in order that you may
eat and be filled.
(Deuteronomy 11:14-15)
Why does this verse state both that God will send rain and
that the people will gather in the grain? What does it teach about balancing
spiritual matters (i.e. Torah study) and work?
Rabbi Sobel
By mentioning that God will provide rain in its season, the
Torah teaches us that our sustenance and our success at making a living come
from the Lord. This is a very important truth to always keep in mind. For it is
all too easy and common for people to believe that their livelihood is solely
dependent upon their hard work and abilities. This passage warns us against
making such false assumptions. As we read earlier in this week's parasha:
When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the
LORD your God for the good land which he has given you. Beware that you do not
forget the LORD your God by not keeping his commandments, judgments, and
statutes which I command you today, lest - when you have eaten and are full,
and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; and when your herds and your
flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you
have is multiplied; when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the LORD your
God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
Deuteronomy
8:10-14
Ultimately, the well-being of the Jewish people and the
fruitfulness of the land of Israel
is dependant upon Israel's
covenant fidelity. As the preceding verse in this passage states, "if you
earnestly obey my commandments which I command you today, to love the LORD your
God and serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, then I will give
you the rain (Deuteronomy 11:13-14a).
An example of this is the severe drought that the Lord caused in Northern
Israel in response to the people's idolatry:
Then he (Ahab) built an alter to Baal in the temple of Baal,
which he had built in Samaria . . . Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of
Israel to anger then all the kings of Israel who were before him . . . And
Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilad, said to Ahab, "As the Lord
God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these
years except by my word."
1 Kings 16:31-32
& 17:1
When Israel
walks in covenantal faithfulness, God promises to abundantly provide for his
people. When they fail to do so, they will eventually lack even the basic
necessities of life. Like Israel,
if we want to experience and enjoy the fullness of God's blessings, we must be
faithful to serve him and obey his commandments.
What does the Torah want to teach us by mentioning the
gathering of the grain in the second half of verse 14? In response to this
question, Rabbi Yishmael says:
Because it says, "Let not this book of Torah depart from
your lips" (Joshua 1:8), I might think that this is to be taken literally, and
a person should do nothing but learn Torah. That is why it says "that you may
gather in your grain," which implies that you should combine Torah study with
earning a livelihood, and the verse in Joshua 18 is not meant to be taken
literally.
b. Berachot 35b
R. Shimon bar Yochai offers another interpretation that
seems to disagree with R. Ishmael. He states,
Is that possible? If a person plows in the plowing season,
reaps in the harvest season, threshes in the threshing season, and winnows when
the wind blows, what is to become of Torah? When will we find time to study
Torah? Impossible! But when the Jewish people are doing God's will, their work
is done by others, as it says, "Strangers shall stand and feed your sheep,
aliens will be your plowers and vine-trimmers" (Isaiah 61:5). But when the
Jewish people are not doing God's will, they will have to do their work
themselves, as it says, "And you will gather in your grain"
b. Berachot 35b
Which is the correct view? If one completely accepts Rabbi
Yishmael's one might wind up neglecting study and serving God in order to make
a livelihood. One the other hand, if one totally accepts R. Yochai's view, one
might develop a negative view of work which will lead to poverty and the need
for welfare. In truth, both views are important for they help to balance each
other out.
How do we maintain the balance between these two views when
most people have to work hard to earn a decent living? First, we need to make
Torah our primary occupation and our work secondary. This means that we should be cognizant of the
fact that our primary purpose in life is to serve the Lord. Thus we should make
serving God our highest priority and should devote as much time as possible to
study and service. When we have the wrong priorities, we will not succeed at
either.
I recently had a discussion with a leader who has become
very successful in business. In response to a question I asked about the keys
to his success, he responded, "When I have to make choice between God's
business and my own. I always put the Lord's first. This is the reason why I
believe that God has blessed me so." When we make it our goal in life to love
the Lord and serve him with all our strength God can take even our minimal time
and talents and add a great increase. As two of the greatest leaders of
Scripture have taught by word and deed:
This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but
you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to
all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then
you will have good success.
Joshua 1:8
Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?' or ‘What
shall we drink?' or ‘What shall we wear?' For after all these things the gentiles
seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek
first the kingdom of God
and God's righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
Matthew 6:31-33
As we strive to follow in their footsteps, may God bless us
so that we can invest more resources and energy in building God's Kingdom.
2. On the surface, the
provision of manna seems like a blessing, but according to Deuteronomy 8:16, it
served "to humble" Israel and "to test" them. How did the manna serve as a
test for Israel? Why did God want to test Israel? Did Israel pass the test? What lessons were they supposed to
learn? How is this passage connected to the temptation of Messiah in Matthew
4:1-11 & Luke 4:1-12?
Rabbi Kaplan
In Deuteronomy 8:16, Moses uses the language of testing to describe God's
provision of manna to our ancestors. He says that God fed our ancestors manna
in the wilderness lema‘an nassotekha
"in order to test you." Interestingly the same language is used above in 8:2.
In both places Moses goes on to explain the reason for the testing. In 8:2, God
tests Israel with hardships "to
learn what was in your hearts: whether you would keep his commandments or not."
In 8:16, God tests Israel with these hardships
"only to benefit you in the end." It would seem that these clauses are
parallel. Thus God determines what is in our hearts through testing, and this
knowledge is ultimately for our benefit. This testing tells both God and us the
inclination of our hearts, whether we will keep the commandments or not.
One might wonder how keeping of the commandments associated with manna
tells God and us whether or not we might be inclined to keep all of the
commandments. The relationship between the commandments associated with manna
and the rest of the commandments is clearer when we look at Exodus 16. There
Moses instructs the people to collect a double portion of manna on Friday so
that one portion will be available for them to eat on Shabbat. But after they
received Moses' instructions, some people in the community quickly violated
this commandment.
Yet some of the people went out on the seventh day to
gather, but they found nothing. And the LORD said to Moses, "How long will you
men refuse to obey my commandments and my teachings? Mark that the LORD has
given you the Sabbath; therefore he gives you two days' food on the sixth day.
Let everyone remain where he is: let no one leave his place on the seventh
day." So the people remained inactive on the seventh day.
Exodus 16:27-30
On a halakhic (legal) level the people's failure to set aside a double
portion on the sixth day leads them to violate the prohibitions against work on
Shabbat. On a spiritual level the people's failure to set aside a double
portion indicates their lack of trust in God's promise that the extra portion
would be there the next day. They probably assumed that, as on the other five
days of the week, if one gathered more than one day's portion, the extra would
rot by the next morning (Exodus 16:17-20).
Therefore, those in Israel who believed God's
promise and kept God's commandments indicated their trust in God.
Both Matthew 4:1-11 & Luke 4:1-12 describe Yeshua undergoing a series
of tests during 40 days (like Israel's 40 years) in the
wilderness. In Matthew's besora in
particular, Yeshua is the one man Israel who identifies with his
people's suffering and is faithful in the tests in which Israel did not succeed. All of
Yeshua's responses to temptation come from Deuteronomy 6-8. To the tempter's
suggestion that he turn rocks into bread to ease his hunger, he responds, "One
does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of
God" (Deuteronomy 8:3; Matthew 4:4). To the suggestion that Yeshua cast himself
down from the Temple and allow the angels to save him, Yeshua responds "Do not
put the LORD your God to the test" (Deuteronomy 6:16; Matthew 4:7). To the
tempter's suggestion that Yeshua worship him, Yeshua responds, "Worship the
LORD your God, and serve only him" (Deuteronomy 6:13; Matthew 4:11). Yeshua stands with us in accepting the challenges we faced in the
wilderness, and he succeeds! Through Yeshua's fidelity, God is able to
determine the inclination of our hearts. His fidelity enables our fidelity to
the covenant. Thus, his testing "only . . . benefit[s us] in the end."
Learning 
