Parshat
Bechukotai - 5761- “Sechar VaOnesh” “Reward
and Punishment” In the first chapter of Pirkei
Avot, Mishnah 3, we find the great Torah sage Antigonus of Socho
stating a basic principle of Judaism that had guided him throughout his
life, “Be not like servants who serve their master for the sake of
receiving a reward; instead, be like servants who serve their master not for
the sake of receiving a reward...” Tragically,
intentionally or not, his students Tzaddok and Baitus misunderstood the
message of their master to be that “Reward and Punishment” is not a
principle of Judaism, decided that was unfair, abandoned their religion and
began new sects, particularly the “Tziddukim” who were followers of
Tzaddok, who gave our ancestors a lot of trouble. The beginning of the discussion presented
below is from the Sefer, “Binah BaMikra,” by Rav Yissachar Yaakovson,
published by Sinai, Tel Aviv. Abarbanel, focusing mainly on the
blessings and curses in Parshat Bechukotai, but not finding differences, at
first glance, in all of the “TANAKH,”
asks the following, “Why is it that the Torah frames its description of
reward and punishment in purely materialistic terms, with scarcely any
mention of the spiritual consequences of obeying or disobeying the commands
of the Torah? Why in particular
is there no reference to the consequences for the immortal soul of one’s
behavior on earth?” “Achad HaAm,” not necessarily the
most reliable intellectual historian, theorized that it was only in the wake
of the destruction of the First
Temple, when confidence in the future of the Jewish People began to
wane, especially as an independent Nation on its own land, that Jewish
Scholars put forth the idea that “this world is comparable to an
entrance-way to the Palace of the next world, into which individuals will be
able to gain entry based on their behavior in the entrance-way (Avot
4:21).” Achad HaAm’s notion
was that it was the tragedy of the destruction of their national life, the
loss of their own land,… that forced the Jewish People to seek refuge in
the “dualistic” separation of body and soul. The RAMBAM,
on the other hand, is of the opinion that belief in Reward and Punishment in
the spiritual sense is a fundamental belief of “Yahadut.”
In “Laws of Repentance” (8:1), he writes, “The good that is
stored up for the righteous is life in the World-to-Come; and this is the
life of which death is no part…It is this to which the Torah makes
reference when it says ‘in order that it be good for you, and you live
long;’ from our Tradition we learn that ‘in order that it be good with
you’ refers to the ‘World’ that is altogether good, and ‘that you
may live long’ refers to the ‘World’ that is Eternal.
And that is the ‘World-to-Come.’
The reward of the righteous is that they will merit this great
pleasantness, and will be in this goodness.
The punishment of the wicked is that they will not merit this
life…” In Repentance (8:7), the RAMBAM says,
“…The Early Sages have already made clear to us that the Good of the
World-to-Come is beyond the power of Man to conceive clearly, and there is
None Who knows its greatness and its beauty and its essence but the Holy One
Blessed Be He, Alone.” “And
indeed all the good that the Prophets have prophesied for the Jewish
People are in fact material and relate to the time of the “Mashiach,”
the time that rule will return to the Jewish People, but the Good of the
World-to-Come has no means of comparison, and the Prophets did not attempt
to compare anything to it so as not to diminish it by their imagining.
It is this that Yeshayahu
hinted at when he said, ‘No eye has seen it, O G-d, but Yours, Who will
make it for those who wait for it.’… In Repentance 9:2 we find, “And because
of this all Israel, their prophets and their scholars desired the coming of
the Days of the ‘Mashiach,’ because then they will have relief from the
persecution of the nations…and then they will have tranquility and they
will increase in wisdom in order that they will merit the life of the
World-to-Come…and it is said, ‘And I will remove the heart of stone from
your bodies;’ because that king who will arise from the seed of David will
be possessed of wisdom greater than that of Shlomo,
and he will be a prophet close to the level of Moshe
our Teacher. And therefore he
will be able to teach the people and show them the way of G-d.
And all the nations will come to hear him, as it is said, ‘And it
will be at the end-of-days the mountain of the House of G-d will stand above
all other mountains.” In Repentance 10:2-4, the RAMBAM writes,
“One who worships out of love, lives a life of Torah and Mitzvos
and walks in the pathways of wisdom, not out of a desire for any reward, and
not out of fear of any punishment,… but rather he (or she) does the truth because
it is the truth, and if reward will follow, that is also to the
good…” “And what is the love like, with which
a person should love G-d? It is
that he should love G-d with a great love, excessive and very fierce, until
his soul becomes bound up with the love of HaShem, and he becomes almost
insane with it, as if he were sick because of love, as a person who is madly
in love with a woman and his thoughts are never free from the love of her,
whether he is sitting down, whether he is standing, whether he is eating or
drinking. Greater even than
this should be the love of G-d in the hearts of those who love Him, as He
has Commanded us, ‘…with all your heart and with all your soul…’ ” “…And so did the greatest of the
Sages teach the greatest of their students and those with the deepest
insight, ‘Don’t be like servants who serve their master in order to
receive a reward…’ but rather because He is the Master, it is fitting to
serve Him; that is to say, serve Him with love.” Rabbi Pinchas Frankel |
