Timeless Torah

Money can’t Buy (25:20)
Young couples who devote their lives to the service of G-d, either by becoming rabbis, teachers…. are barely getting by. But shouldn’t their commitment to G-d guarantee them a livelihood? Shouldn’t they be

The final chapters in the Book of Vayikra contain the blessing, “You will eat your bread and be satisfied.” Rashi (1040-1105) explains that this blessing is greater than a cursory reading would lead one to initially believe. What is being promised is not an income of several hundred thousand dollars. Anyway, who says that’s always a godsend? The ultimate blessing is to be satisfied with what we are given - irrespective of how little it may be. For if a person is happy with what he has; he will be completely satisfied with life.

The Seforno (1470-1550) elaborates on this idea in our weekly portion. In connection to the Sabbatical year when it is forbidden to plant and harvest, the Bible addresses the skeptics’ query, “What will we eat in the seventh year?” with, “I will command My blessing for you in the sixth year and it will yield a crop sufficient for the three-year period.”
The way the Torah structures the question and answer implies that we only receive this magnificent blessing by virtue of the question, “If you will ask, what shall we eat?” But what would happen if the question was not asked? Are we to infer that the crops would not double? Precisely, says the Seforno. It is the question and its attendant lack of faith that requires G-d to display His power and send an unnatural bumper crop.

There are two types of blessings. One is in quantity, the other in quality. We all know of families that earn far less money than we do. Nonetheless, they seem happy and content. We wonder, “How do they do it? They are making a tenth of what I am!” The answer is that they have merited the blessing of, “You will eat your bread and be satisfied.”
This concept can be used to understand the verse in the daily prayer, Ashrei, “You open Your hand and give satisfaction to every living creature with what they desire.” The words are precise. The satisfaction is not that they receive diamonds or gold. Instead, G-d’s gift is that He grants creatures the satisfaction of having what they desire. G-d has the ability, if people merit, to give them the feeling of satisfaction with what they have. The ability to feel that, “I have what I want” is the greatest blessing imaginable.

This very same sentiment can be gleaned from an episode where the Jewish people requested water during their travels in the desert. At one point, G-d commanded Moses to speak to the rock and give water, “To the congregation and to their cattle,” (In Hebrew, Es ha’eidah V’es b’iram.) Unfortunately, Moses struck the rock, “And abundant water flowed and he gave drink to the congregation and their cattle.” (Es ha’eidah U’b’iram). Notice that prior to the incident, the sentence pauses between the words ‘congregation and cattle’, with the use of the conjunctive word es). Afterwards the second es before the word ‘cattle’ is dropped.

Had Moses spoken to the rock, a sanctification of G-d’s Name would have occurred and the Jews would have merited being satisfied with a comparatively small amount of water. Thus how much water the people required vs. the cattle would have been totally incommensurate. The people could have been satisfied by one or two gulps, because when one does the Will of G-d, one can be satisfied with even a small amount. This blessing however cannot exist in respect to the animals, which is why they would have needed tremendous amounts of water.
Consequently, in the original command to bring forth water, there was a separation between the people’s drinking and the animal’s drinking. But when they failed to sanctify G-d’s Name, they forfeited the blessing of being satisfied with a little and as a result, the drinking among the humans and animals became indistinguishable.
We wonder sometimes, when we see young couples who devote their lives to the service of G-d, either by becoming rabbis, teachers, etc. We know that financially they are barely getting by. But shouldn’t their faith and commitment to G-d and His people guarantee them a livelihood? Shouldn’t they be rewarded? In actually, they are. This does not necessarily mean $150,000 a year. (Not that many colleagues of mine would complain if that happened.) But the true benefit that a person can merit is satisfaction and happiness. That’s a blessing that even money can’t buy, only G-d can bestow.