The righteous do not rely on their good deeds
Commentators weigh in on Moshe's pleas to enter the land.
Our Parasha opens by relating the 515th plea of Moshe Rabbeinu to Hashem to nullify the decree of Mei Meriba:(3:23-29)
’I implored Hashem at that time, saying:
’My Lord, Hashem Elokim, You have begun to show your servant Your greatness and Your strong hand, for what power is there in the heaven or on the earth that can perform according to Your deeds and according to Your mighty acts? Let me now cross and see the good Land that is on the other side of the Jordan, this good mountain and the Lebanon.
‘But Hashem became angry with me because of you, and He did not listen to me; Hashem said to me:’It is too much fot you! Do not continue to speak to Me further about this matter. Ascend to the top of the cliff and raise your eyes westward, northward, southward and eastward, and see with your eyes, for you shall not cross this Jordan. But you shall command Joshua, and strengthen him and give him resolve, for he shall cross before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the Land that you will see’.
‘So we remained in the valley, opposite Beth-Peor.’
Rashi comments:’’ואתחנן: I entreated’: חנון in all cases is an expression signifying a free gift. Even though the the righteous may base a request on the merit of their good deeds, they request only a free gift of the Omnipresent.
‘Because G-d had said to Moshe ( Ki Tissa 33:19 ):’וחנותי: And I will favor when I wish to favor: אחן’, Moshe spoke to Hashem , using the expression ואתחנן.
The Kli Yakar favors us with an exposition on these psukim, which, in his own words, ‘is a precious explanation’.
He brings our Rashi, and asks on it: ’How would it cross our minds that the righteous would seek merit, for the good deeds that they had already performed? Is it not true that at no is man ‘owed’ by Hashem, as all the mitzvot that man may perform, cannot be repayment for all that Hashem has done for him.
‘ Further, the passuk that Rashi brings - ‘And I will favor when I wish to favor’ - is not a support, as it comes to teach that, even when one has no merits, Hashem favors him in his grace; but here, Moshe was punished because of his transgression, and he is therefore worse than one who has neither merits nor transgressions.
The answer to this - that the righteous have good deeds which to raise - alludes not their past good deeds, but to the good deeds that they will perform in the future, and this is truth, for even the Attribute of Judgement concedes that this yearning of theirs should be fulfilled, as that which they want is that which Hashem also wants; as even though they transgressed and were to be punished, Hashem does not wish to prevent them from doing Mitzvot in the future.
‘However, Moshe in his great humility, did not wish to base his request on the future good deeds that he would perform, were he to enter the Land, as perhaps he would enter the Land and not perform Mitzvot, and therefore asked on the basis of the present, when he did not have the merit of those good deeds. He therefore pleaded in the form of ואתחנן, feeling that he needed to ask on the then basis, as an act of grace.’
The hassidic master, the Shem miShmuel, also understands that ‘the good deeds’ to which Rashi alludes, are those that will be performed in the future.
He opens with a query, on this:’Is it not well known that the greater one’s righteousness, the greater is his awareness of their insignificance compared to the greatness of Hashem.
‘How then, can one dare to say that the righteous have good deeds which they can proffer? The opposite: in their eyes, all that they have done is as nought!
‘Answers the Kotzker Rebbe: the good deeds referred to, are those that they will perform in the future.
‘This too, is difficult, as the wisest of men adjures us ( Mishlei 27:1 ) not to rejoice in the morrow, for we don’t know what tomorrow will bring.
We therefore need to expound this by the Midrash, that Hashem Himself observes the Mitzvot..
‘Therefore, when one seeks to go on the right path, in serving Hashem and performing Mitzvot, there is a Mitzvah on others, to assist him to do so.
‘Hashem - who observes the mitzvot - therefore will assist that person to fulfill the Mitzvot, if the person’s intentions are pure, and only to perform mitzvot.
‘This is the way of the righteous, as the Psalmist says: ( Ps’ 112 ):’ In His Mitzvot lies their desire’, which our Sages expound: In the Mitzvot, and not in the reward for performing them.
‘Assuredly, then, that Hashem will assist them to do so.
‘The Gemara ( Sotah 14. ) says that Moshe’s yearning to enter the Land was solely so that he himself could perform the Mitzvot which can only be performed there, ‘the Mitzvot which are dependent on the Land’.
Moshe could therefore have ‘demanded’ as of right, that Hashem was obligated to assist him to do so, as his intention was solely to perform Mitzvot.
‘This is what Rashi alluded to, in his commentary that ‘the righteous have good deeds on which they can rely’, that their yearning is solely so that they may perform Hashem’s Mitzvot, and they can therefore proffer these future Mitzvot, yet they do not do so, but only seek from Hashem, by way of a free gift’.
The Panim Yafot offers a different exposition:’The plain meaning of the matter, is as we say in our prayers:’Do for Your sake, if not for ours’, meaning: if we are not deserving by the merits of our deeds, do for Your sake.
However, as to Moshe, we find that he prayed solely by way of Hashem’s grace, without raising as ‘perhaps’, his own merits, because the righteous - as we saw in Yaakov - whatever they may have done, realize that they still have a great debt to repay to Hashem; how much more so, then, that they don’t raise their past good deeds, as meriting Hashem’s grace, but ‘do only for Your sake’ - Hashem - in Your great mercy.’
Rav Yehonatan Eibshitz, on our Rashi, also expounds that Moshe Rabbeinu’s plea to enter the Land, was, as our Sages teach, so that he could himself perform the Mitzvot which can only be performed there, did not rely on this, but pleaded, as an act of grace, and sweetens this, adding:’It needs to be said, that without first receiving aid from Above, one cannot fully serve Hashem.
‘Therefore, in fact, it is not man’s deeds, but the deeds of Hashem, as only were man’s deeds to precede the aid from Above - which is not the case - could they be truly ‘man’s deeds’.
However, Hashem, in His great mercy, even though his aid comes first, so that it is in reality, His deeds, graces the righteous by regarding the deed as wholly their deed.
‘This is why the righteous don’t raise ‘their’ good deeds, as they know that these, too, are a gift from Hashem.
The Netivot Shalom brings our Rashi, and adds, as to the ways of the righteous:’There are two levels of serving Hashem: the level of עבד: servant, AND the level of a son.
‘The servant seeks payment from his master, for his work; the son, on the other hand, sees any payment as a gratuity, knowing that meriting to serve the king is THE greatest possible reward.
‘This can be illustrated by a parable said by tzaddikim: A Jew stands before the Heavenly tribunal, when he departs this life, and asks for the reward of the world-to-come, for his good deeds in this world.
They laugh at him: Isn’t it enough for you, that you had the zechut to serve the All-mighty in this world, that you dare to seek reward here, in the world-to-come for that?
‘This is the meaning of our Rashi, that the righteous don’t seek reward for their good deeds, but only an act of grace from Hashem, knowing the ‘nothingness’ of their deeds, when measured against the great zechut of serving Hashem.’
Rav Moshe Teitelbaum, the ‘Yismach Moshe’, proffers the following novel interpretation of our Rashi:’We find in the early commentaries that the righteous, though they have good deeds on which they can rely, do not do so, but only ask a free gift from Hashem.
The reason for this, is that were they to seek a reward for their good deeds in this passing world, it would be in dimunition of their merits in the eternal world-to-come.’
A parting gem from Rav Chizkiyahu Kahan, brought in the compilation Yalkut Lekach Tov.
To fully appreciate it, let us again bring the saying of Rav Simlai: ( Sotah 14. ):’For what reason did Moshe Rabbeinu yearn to enter the Land of Israel? וכי צריך: Did he need to eat of its fruits, or to be sated from its goodness, but rather, he said: There are many Mitzvot that Israel have been commanded, and which can only be performed in the Land; I will enter the Land, so that I can perform them’.
The Torah Temima comments:’What was the query ‘for what reason..’? The Avot and the great people of our nation all yearned to enter the Land?
We therefore need to answer that this itself was the query: For what reason did they yearn to enter the Land?
‘For this reason: to be able to perform the Mitzvot which can only be performed there, and this we learn from Moshe Rabbeinu.
The key words, in the Gemara, for us, are: וכי צריך: did he ‘need’.
We are sadly oblivious to our loss, of not having performing Mitzvot which have not come before us.
Moshe Rabbeinu, as our Sages teach, whose whole life was centered on performing Mitzvot and good deeds, lived with a feeling of incompleteness, from not being able to perform the Mitzvot ‘dependent on the Land’, which could only be performed in the Land, and which he implored Hashem 515 times - the numerical value of ואתחנן - that he be permitted to enter the Land, only so that they could be performed by him.
To the righteous, any lack of completeness, may be likened to the absence of a limb, as, in his mind, it is not compensated for by the completeness of the rest of his limbs.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/394615
No comments:
Post a Comment