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August 15, 2003/Av 17 5763, Vol. 55, No. 51
Commitment to God: a worthy heritage
Torah study
RABBI SHLOMO RISKIN
Eikev/Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25
"And now, O Israel, what does the Lord Your God demand of you? Only this: to revere the Lord your God, to walk only in His paths, to love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and soul, keeping the Lord's commandments and laws ... for your good." (Deuteronomy 10:11-13)
Is that all? How can the Torah express such a difficult request in such an offhand manner?
A significant experience at the beginning of my teaching career only serves to intensify the question. Almost four decades ago, when teaching Talmud at the James Striar School of Yeshiva University, for those without previous yeshiva background, the star of the class was a young man from Montreal who progressed from barely being able to read the words in Aramaic to real proficiency in analyzing a difficult tosafot (commentary). But at the end of the year, he decided to leave both Yeshiva University as well as his newly found Torah observance.
His explanation has remained imprinted in my consciousness all these years: "As a non-religious Jew, I would get up each morning asking myself how I wished to spend the day; as a religious Jew, I must get up each morning asking myself how God wants me to spend the day. The pressure is simply too intense for me to take."
I was sorely disappointed - but I did understand his tension. He understood that true religious devotion means dedicating every moment to answering a divine call whose message you can never be certain that you correctly discern.
So how can the Bible query "what does the Lord Your God demand of you?" And how can it be "for your good"?
This question may be linked to a curious comparison made by the text of our Torah reading between the land of Egypt and the land of Israel: "For the land that you are about to enter and possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come. There the grain you sowed had to be watered by your own labors ... but the land you are about to ... possess, a land of hills and valleys, soaks up its water from the rains of heaven." (Deuteronomy 11:10)
Is then the fact that the land of Israel is dependent upon the rains of Divine grace that come as a result of the people's moral standing, that agricultural activity is a much more arduous and precarious task than it is in Egypt, a reason for praising Israel?
It is fascinating to note that both of the issues we have raised thus far, the Torah and the land of Israel, are uniquely called morasha or heritage, by the Bible. Yerusha is the usual term for inheritance; morasha is translated as heritage. The Jerusalem Talmud explains that an inheritance is often received through no expenditure of effort on the part of the recipient; a morasha, on the other hand, implies intense exertion, commitment and even sacrifice on the part of the recipient.
All of this leads us to one inescapable conclusion: those objects, ideals and people for which we have labored intensively and sacrificed unsparingly are the very ones we love the most and value above all others.
A life without ideals or people for whom one would gladly sacrifice is a life not worth living; a life devoid of emotional commitments is a life that has merely passed one by but that has never been truly lived.
And our commitment to God - with all our heart, soul and might - is a small thing to ask as long as it is an expression of our mutual love. In the final analysis it is certainly for our good, because it gives ultimate meaning, purpose and eternity to our finite lives.
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin is the spiritual leader of Efrat, Israel.
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