Ever wonder why it sometimes feels like we’re living off scraps, while the real feast is always "later?" It's a feeling that resonates deeply, and our tradition has something profound to say about it.
The Devarim Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic teachings on the Book of Deuteronomy, wrestles with the verse, "The Lord your God will maintain for you…" What exactly will God maintain? What are we living on now, and what are we waiting for?
Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥman offers a startling idea: everything we enjoy in this world, everything we partake in, is actually a result of the blessings that the wicked Bilam (Numbers 22-24) bestowed upon us! Think about that for a moment. Not the blessings of our righteous ancestors, but the accidental blessings of a sorcerer hired to curse us. It’s like saying we’re living off the fumes of someone else's near-miss. But, according to Rabbi Shmuel, the blessings of the patriarchs? Those are reserved for the future. They're the true inheritance, the real reward, waiting for us. They relate to "the covenant and the kindness regarding which He took an oath to your forefathers."
Rabbi Ḥelbo uses a powerful parable to illustrate this point. Imagine an orphan raised by a homeowner. The orphan eats, drinks, and is clothed by the homeowner, and is taught a trade. But the orphan worries: "Everything I receive now will be deducted from my future wages!" The homeowner reassures him, "No, what you eat, drink, and wear is for the small tasks you do, like fetching water and chopping wood. Your real wages are safe, bound, and stored for you."
Isn’t that a remarkable image?
So, too, everything Israel consumes in this world, according to this analogy, comes from the suffering that befalls them. What?! It sounds crazy, but the idea is that the hardships we endure are like those small tasks. They allow us to survive in the here and now, but they are not the measure of our true worth. Our true reward, our "wages," are bound and reserved for the future. As it is stated: “The Lord your God will maintain for you..."
But what exactly is "the covenant and the kindness" that this verse refers to? Rabbi Ḥiyya offers a beautiful insight: Israel possesses three good attributes: they are shy, merciful, and perform acts of kindness. Where do we see this?
Shyness, or perhaps more accurately, awe, comes from the verse, "So that His fear will be upon your faces" (Exodus 20:17). Mercy is derived from "He will give you mercy, and He will be merciful to you" (Deuteronomy 13:18). The double language here is crucial: God not only shows us mercy, but gives us the capacity for mercy. And finally, the performance of acts of kindness is rooted in our verse: "The Lord your God will maintain for you the covenant and the kindness regarding which He took an oath to your forefathers." This implies that God swore to our forefathers because of their inherent kindness, as we see in Genesis 18:19.
So, what are we to take away from this? Perhaps it's a reminder that our present struggles don’t define our ultimate destiny. The small acts of kindness, the hardships endured, the very breath we take – they may feel like all we have sometimes. But there’s a deeper covenant, a greater kindness, a profound reward waiting. It's a promise of a future built on the virtues of mercy, humility, and loving-kindness, passed down through generations. It's a future where the blessings of our ancestors, not the fleeting gifts of the present, truly sustain us. It’s something to think about, isn’t it?