"The Ultimate Result"התוצאה הסופית
Parashat HaShavua Ekev / As a Result
This Week's Reading List:
Devarim / Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25
Yeshayahu / Isaiah 49:14-51:3
Romim / Romans 8:31-39
Devarim {8:1} All the mitzvot (commandments) which I command you this day shall you observe to do, that you may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which HaShem swore to your avot (fathers). {8:2} You shall remember all the way which HaShem your G-D has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that He might humble you, to prove you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His mitzvot, or not. {8:3} He humbled you, and allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna, which you did not know, neither did your avot know; that He might make you know that ish (man) does not live by bread only, but by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of HaShem does ish live... {8:11} Beware lest you forget HaShem your G-D, in not keeping His mitzvoth, and His chukim (judgments), and His statutes, which I command you this day: {8:16} who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your avot did not know; that He might humble you, and that He might prove you, to do you good at your latter end:
I trust you noticed that I skipped a few verses in quoting the above portion from this week’s Parasha. That is because I only wanted to quote verses that were pertinent to our discussion.
What I would like us to see here is that, firstly, HaShem wants us to obey Him and observe all His mitzvot. He has promised that if we keep them we will not only live, but we will prosper, we will multiply and we will also posses the land of our enemies. However, HaShem wants us to remember that even though we may be obedient to His mitzvot, He will find it necessary, from time to time, to humble us in order to test whether our commitment to Him is true. As He said above, He did this humbling by, among other things, causing bnei Yisrael (the children of Israel) to hunger and then providing them with the most meager of food (manna), which under normal circumstances seem to physically nor nutritionally satisfy a person. However, this food miraculously does satisfy. In our Scripture passage He said He did this to show that “man does live on bread alone but on every Word which proceeds from the mouth of G-d” .
My wife and I are very health conscious. We try our best to eat healthy and nutritiously. However, both of us know, without a doubt, that no matter how well we eat and no matter how health conscience we are, without our being obedient to HaShem and His mitzvot, we would not be able to maintain good health. Our health and wellbeing does not depend on bread alone, but on every Word that proceeds from the mouth of G-d.
Today we are told that we must eat balanced healthy meals. Schools are removing Coca Cola and other potentially unhealthy drinks and food from their cafeterias’. However, these same schools have already taken G-d out of the classrooms -- G-d is barred from entering our school (at least the G-d of Avraham, Yitzchak and Ya’acov that is). What can we conclude then? Well, as HaShem has said, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of G-d?” We can conclude, therefore, that man’s efforts to instill healthy eating habits into our schoolchildren will not produce a generation of healthy adults, at least in the long run anyways.
The second thing that I would like us to see is that HaShem sends adversity into our lives so as to humble us. I have noticed, in myself as well, that success is left unchecked then we can become self-serving, self-aggrandizing and snobbish. This can develop to the point where we look down on others and seek out only those people that can further our positions or our careers. Adversity in a person’s life certainly cures this problem. When problems strike you realize that you are not invincible or infallible, but that you are like everyone else in this wicked and perverse world. You are vulnerable and subject to sickness, disease, disasters and problems. Through this knowledge and through the experiencing of any one of these messengers from G-d, humility is produced in us.
The final thing that I would like us to see is that everything HaShem does to us, is done just as the last Scripture I quoted above states, “... that He might prove you, to do you good at your latter end:” haSatan (Satan) tempts us for the purpose that he might do us evil in the latter end. He wants us to fail, mess up and fall away from HaShem, but HaShem tests us so that we might know who we really are. He does it so that we will not be puffed-up, self serving and snobbish. HaShem tests us for the purpose of doing good to us in the latter end. Every time we pass a test and choose G-d’s will over or own we draw closer to HaShem, which will ultimately result in Him blessing us.
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Baruch HaShem
Rabbi Ya'acov Farber
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