Boulder Aish Kodesh

Four books and three Parshiot into the reading of the Torah, we are finally told exactly what G-d wants from us: ‘And now, Israel, what does Hashem your G-d ask of you? Just to fear Hashem your G-d, and to walk in His ways, and to love Him, and to serve Hashem your G-d with all your heart and all your soul (Dev. 10:12).’ No problem, right?

The Gemarra Brachot 33b asks, perhaps a bit sarcastically, ‘Is this such a small thing? Maybe for Moshe it is a small matter…’ The Gemarra is aware that this is the challenge of a lifetime, but we are at least glad to have a point toward which to focus.

The rewards promised are comparable to the magnitude of the challenge: ‘G-d will keep the covenant and the love that He promised to your ancestors. And G-d will love you and bless you and make you to increase, and bless the fruits of your womb and the fruits of your soil, and your grain, your wine, and your oil… (Dev. 7:13)’.

There could not be such abundant reward if the task was not a challenge – ‘there’s no such thing as a free lunch.’ The Parsha (Dev. 7:17) emphasizes the fact that we are engaged in an uphill battle – ‘if/when you should say in your heart, ‘these nations outnumber me! How shall I inherit their land?’’ In another place: ‘Listen, Israel! Today, you are crossing the Jordan to conquer nations that are greater and stronger than you - great cities that are fortified to the heavens. A great and mighty nation, the offspring of giants! And you know, and you have heard – who can stand in front of the offspring of giants?!’ The Jews are meant to know that the task before them is impossible to accomplish by normal means.

The answer given is the power of memory – ‘Don’t be afraid! Remember well what Hashem your G-d did to Pharaoh and all of Egypt (Dev 7:18).’ But the Ben Ish Chai points out something daunting about memory: whenever the Torah commands us to remember, it implies that, if left to the natural course of events, we would forget.’ This struggle we are facing is not merely a battle against strong human forces; it is a battle against entropy.

The forces of entropy wish to lull us into a deep sleep where we forget G-d – in terms of the past, and in terms of the future. ‘Be very careful, lest you forget Hashem your G-d, and you come to desist from guarding His commandments, laws, and statutes that I command you today. [be careful,] lest you eat, and be satisfied, and build beautiful houses and settle, and your cattle and sheep increase greatly, and you increase in monetary wealth, and everything you have increases, and your heart becomes haughty and you forget Hashem your G-d who took you out of Egypt, the house of slavery… and you will say in your heart, ‘My strength and the power of my hand brought me this wealth (Dev. 8:11-17).’ And, again the antidote of memory: ‘Remember Hashem your G-d, for He gives you the strength to become wealthy (Dev. 8:18).’

We can accomplish nothing if we do not remember. Our only hope is to remember who we are, what we’ve been through, Who is helping us, and what we do to sabotage the project of redemption. But, as the Ben Ish Chai said, memory itself is an uphill battle.

A deeper awareness of the magnitude of the challenge brings us to a different standard of success. We are working on the ultimate project – the transformation of an entire nation of stiff-necked people. This work is slow and arduous. It therefore requires a healthy amount of consistent work toward that goal, and a deep patience during the process.

The second paragraph of the Shema, which appears in this week’s Parsha, gives us both. Similar to the task given to us – ‘what does G-d ask of you?’ – the Shema tells us ‘if you serve G-d with all your hearts and all your souls…’ This does not imply any success; only total commitment to the task. The measure of success will not be a checklist of mitzvot performed, but the amount of effort put in to the process.

Similarly, the verse says that we should put these words ‘on our hearts’. It has been said that we are to put them on our hearts so that one day, when our hearts are open, they will be able to penetrate into our hearts.

To this end, we are commanded to work toward opening our hearts to the realities of G-d, providence, our own frailties and tendencies, etc. As it says in verse 10:16, ‘and you shall remove the foreskin that covers your hearts, so that you will no longer be stiff-necked.’ This is again, an extremely difficult task, for ‘no one can free himself from his own prison.’ The Kotzker Rebbe (Ohel Torah, Netzavim) addresses this issue by asking about two different verses: in one place it says that we are to remove the foreskin of our own hearts, and in another place (dev. 30:6) it says that Hashem will remove the foreskin from our hearts. The Kotzker answers that it is, in fact, incumbent upon a person to remove that which blocks the heart from being open to change. But for the heart to be transformed is upon G-d to complete. Again, we are told to perform a task that we cannot complete.

It seems that G-d wants us to know that we are being challenged in this way: 8:2 tells us ‘remember the journey through which G-d has guided you these forty years in the desert, in order to impoverish you and to test you, so that you may know what is in your own heart: will you keep His commandments, or not?’

What emerges is a span of tasks we re commanded to complete but not expected to accomplish by our own hand. As it says in Avot, ‘The work is not upon you to finish, but you are not free to desist from it.’ We are called upon to do our part, fully and honestly, with every thread of our being and with every ounce of energy. But we are not expected to conquer the land of Israel by our effort. Nor are we expected to conquer our own hearts without the help of G-d. Our task is to stay within the struggle.

Within this framework of expectations, we are called to recognize a distorted system of causality: through our all-too-human but full hearted efforts, G-d rewards us with what we need. The land of Israel is conquered by our marching fully armed - with weapons and with faith. If either is missing, the task cannot be accomplished. We most open our hearts by our own hands – but to the end of allowing G-d to enter and to bring transformation.