The One Who Tends the Fig Tree Eats Its Fruit

"Whoever tends a fig tree will eat its fruit" (Proverbs 27:18). Rabbi Levi said: If a person merits Torah in this world, he will eat its fruit in the World to Come. There we have learned (Mishnah Peah 1:1): "These are the things that have no fixed measure: the corner of the field [left for the poor], the first-fruits, the festival offering, acts of loving-kindness, and the study of Torah. And these are the things whose fruit a person eats in this world while the principal remains intact for him in the World to Come: honoring father and mother, acts of loving-kindness, making peace between a person and his fellow, visiting the sick, attentiveness in prayer, rising early to the house of study, and the study of Torah, which is equal to them all." Therefore it is said, "Whoever tends a fig tree will eat its fruit" (Proverbs 27:18).