Reb Ginsbourg: THE ETERNAL WITNESSES

 

The eternal witnesses

How can one compare man, with his abiiity to choose, to the heaven and earth? Commentaries weigh in on the question.

Our Parasha concludes with an exhortation: ‘you shall choose life’, and appoints two eternal witnesses, Heaven and Earth’, as we read:(30:19-20):’I call heaven and earth today to bear witness against you; I have placed life and death before you, blessing and curse; and you shall choose life, so that you will live, you and your offspring - to love Hashem, your G-d, to listen to His voice and to cleave to Him, fot He is your life and the length of your days, to dwell upon the land that Hashem swore to your forefathers, to Avraham, to Yitzchak and to Yaakov, to give them.’

Rashi brings the commentary of our Sages, who expound that heaven and earth, as well as being witnesses, are also a role model, and example to Bnei Israel, in this august matter:’ For the heaven and earth exist for ever, and when the evil befalls you, they will be witnesses that I had warned you regarding all of this. 

Another explanation of ‘I call upon the heaven and the earth as witnesses etc.’: The Holy One, Blessed is He, said to Israel:’Look at the heavens which I created to serve you. Have they ever changed their ways..as it says: (Ecc. 1:5)’The sun rises, and the sun sets’. Look at the earth which I created to serve you, has it ever changed its ways? Have you ever sown that it did not grow?

‘Now they were created with neither reward nor loss in mind - for if they are meritorious (by fulfilling their purpose for which I created them) they nevertheless do not receive reward; and if they sin, they are not punished,

‘And yet they have never changed their ways! So you, who will receive reward if you are meritorious and who will be punished if you sin - how much more so.’

Rav Yosef Salant asks an obvious question, on this Rashi:’On the face of it, we cannot understand that Israel here were told to ‘look at heaven and earth’, and learn from them, that they do not change their ways, and that they too, should do likewise, as heaven and earth do not have the power of choice, and do not rise from the form in which they were created, remaining in their original state.

This is not the case with man, as he alone was created with intellect, and on whom is cast the obligation to do with the understanding with which Hashem endowed him.

‘It is therefore not apt to say that the deeds of yesterday, should also be his deeds today - more so, in matters of his service of Hashem.

‘True, our Sages say (Eruv’ 100:), that the Torah not been given to Israel, we could learn modesty from cats, and not to steal, from ants, and sexual morality from the dove - meaning: when we see good attributes in different animals, clearly with the intellect with which we have been endowed, we too should act similarly; but to learn from the cycle of the sun and the earth, which always act in their fixed ways, has no basis.

Perhaps the intention, in the commentary of our Sages, is that it comes to teach that, just as they do not stray from their course, that it should not, with the passage of time, enter our minds - in the way of those who say that the Torah and its edicts were fine for the generation to whom they were given, but not to our generation and times, which are totally different.

‘To totally cast aside any such heretical thoughts in future generations, Hashem directed Moshe to give to the people heaven and earth, as witnesses, and that they should regard them, and contemplate that at no time have they strayed from their ways, as conclusive proof that these heretical thoughts, and to understand that the Torah, like them, is immutable and unchangeable, down to its minutest detail.

‘A deeper understanding can be gleaned from the Midrash, that the Torah was the blueprint for our world, and therefore, it provided for every Mitzvah which would be commanded.

Therefore, when we gaze at the heavens, that, like the earth, remains steadfast in its appointed role, and - as our Sages teach - they were created solely for the good of man, that he would have the ability and opportunities to perform the Mitzvot, this is conclusive proof that the Torah, in all,of its minutae, is eternal and unchanging.

‘This compels us to understand that we are able to- indeed, compelled - at all times to observe the Mitzvot of the Torah, that just as we continue to enjoy and utilize the light of the same sun and moon, as at their creation, and, likewise, the same nature exists in the earth - that man sows, and the earth grows it - as at the time of Adam Harishon, and the heavenly firmaments have not varied despite the passage of time, and all of these were created to enable man to perform the Torah and Mitzvot, it follows that the Torah, too, is eternal and immutable; as the Torah was the blueprint for the creation of the world, just as the Giver of the Torah is eternal and complete in all perfection, so too is His Torah.’

Rav David Hofstedter also raises the query that Rav Salant raised:’ The demand of Bnei Israel to learn from the ways of the heaven and the earth, who have not changed their ways since their creation, requires an axplanation - what place is there to compare between heaven and earth, who do not have the power to choose, and from the nature of their creation perform their role, AND man, who was created with the ability to choose, and whose yetser ha’ra sits at the entrance to his hearr, seeking to subvert him from doing the Will of Hashem?

The Shem miShmuel answers:This very thing - the ability not to have choice - we can learn from the heaven and the earth. Meaning: Man needs to set in his heart that to transgress Hashem’s Will, means ‘death’; just as man will not choose to jump into a fire, utilizing his power of choice to avoid harming himself, so too, he should regard transgressing in his service of Hashem.

‘By so doing, he will defeat the urgings of his yetser ha’ra, to observe the Will of Hashem.

‘The choice to do so does not nullify his ability to choose - to the contrary, it is the ultimate exercise of this ability, as only by so choosing, will he be able to withstand the difficult tests with which his yetser ha’ra confronts him, day in and day out.

This is the lesson learned from the heaven and the earth, as when man reaches the stage of feeling that performing the Will of Hashem is his only option, he will instinctively perform the Will of Hashen, just as it is the nature of heaven and earth to fulfill their roles.’

Rav Moshe Feinstein sweetens our understanding, expounding:’It is true that man has the ability to choose, unlike heaven and earth.

‘Nevertheless, man, though he has the power to choose, has to do that which is right, and not to change in obeying Hashem, just as there is no variation in creation.

‘The world was created by ten utterances, and the Torah was given in several utterances, and it is not relevant to say that now is a different time and therefore different circumstances exist.

At all times there is no change in the Torah, just as there is no change in heaven and earth.

‘We find that even upright observant people seek to hear different words to arouse them than what was said in previous generations, when there was no need to speak of observing all the Mitzvot, as, sadly, is now necessary.

‘Previous generations reckoned the hours in which they did not engage in learning Torah - we, on the other hand, count the number of hours in which we are engaged in learning Torah, as it is the custom to count the lesser.

‘We therefore find that heaven and earth should be our accusers, that just as they have not changed, so too, we should endeavor as best we can, to also not change.’

The Sfat Emet adds:’What aid is there from the heaven and the earth, that do not have the power of choice, to man?

‘Nevertheless it is relevant because, in the way of nature, every creaion is drawn after Hashem, and His commands; man is assuredly no less so, except that he is required to choose between his yetser hatov, and his yetser ha’ra.

‘If he ensures that the latter does not prevail over the former, he will be drawn after the good, like all creation, as Hashem instilled in man, at creation.’

Returning to Rav Hofstedter:’We still need to ask: how can we achieve this, practically? ‘We observe that, when confronted with a test, man does not measure the great loss that he will suffer if he transgresses, as against the temporal sweetness the yetser ha’ra tempts him with.

How, then, does the lesson from the heaven and the earth, assist him, when they are not confronted with any such trial ?

‘Our Sages answer:(Sukkah 52:)’ A person’s yetser ha’ra prevails over him every day, seeking to kill him, and were it not that Hashem aids man, he would be unable to overcome him.

‘It needs to be said, that this assistance from Above, is not only in the nature of ‘help from Hashem’, but that its power and existence is already within man, from his creation - in the form of the נשמה: the soul, which is a part of the Divine Above, of the Creator Himself.

‘Therefore, even when man transgresses, and ‘damages’ his soul, he cannot harm the Divine part , which is from the loftiest source; it remains connected to Hashem, and it is this that enables man to do Teshuva.

Indeed, because of this unbreakable bond, were it not for the outside factors, the whole desire of man is to perform Hashem’s Will - as our Sages say:(Brachot 17.)’Our will is to do Your Will, and who stands in our way? The yetser ha’ra and the servitude to Kings’.

‘We can now understand the lesson from the heaven and the earth, even though they do not have the power of choice, and do not veer from their nature, just as they do not divert from their role and their nature, so too, Bnei Israel are not to veer from their true essence and nature, which is instilled in every Jew, because of the portion of the Divine in each one’s soul, and our role is to strive to strengthen this bond.’

The Abarbanel links our psukim to the earlier psukim, to the dread of Bnei Israel from the ninety- eight curses that they heard, fearing that they were inevitable, and that they could not escape them.

‘To allay this concern, Hashem now elucidated, ‘that this is totally dependent on you, as you have been given the power of choice, and further, I adjure you:’You shall choose life’.

‘The appointment of the heaven and the earth as witnesses, does not, therefore - as Bnei Israel misunderstood - mean that a decree as to their fate to be judged, is inevitable, but that all depends on their choice.’

Rav Moshe Sternbuch proffers an interesting halakhic insight:’We learn from these psukim, that the heaven and the earth have a double role: the first, to be the witnesses as to whether Bnei Israel have observed, or have transgressed the Mitzvot.

‘The second: As Hashem’s agents to reward, or to punish, as is decreed, they taking part both in the blessing of rain, and in the fate of the crops, depending on the merits of the people.

‘Here we ask: is there not a prohibition, on a witness acting as a judge? True, but this is not the case here, as heaven and earth only act as Hashem’s agents, not as judges.’

Let us conclude our exposition, from the Torah wisdom of Rav Avigdor Nebenzahl, on a query that arises from the commentaries we have brought.

Asks the Rav:’When Bnei Israel, at Sinai, declared: ‘All that Hashem said, we shall do and we shall heed’, did they not thereby negate, as it were, the gift that Hashem gave man: the gift of intellect, and the faculty of being able to choose?

‘The answer is: no, it does not.

‘To accept all that Hashem commands, without subjecting it to our own intellect, is the most logical decision of all.

‘Indeed, just as we accepted the Torah ‘unquestioningly’, so too, we are obligated to perform it in a similar manner.

‘To what can this be likened? To our acceptance of the doctor’s advice, when we are unwell.

‘Since our intellect tells us to accept whatever the doctor orders, we thereby forego the use of our intellect in all that concerns our illness.

‘This acceptance, in reality, is not a negation of our intellect; to the contrary, it is my intellect which tells us to seek the doctor’s advice - in fact, whilst on the one hand, we thereby cede our intellect, on the other hand - and at the very same time - it is the most logical exercise of the intellect.’

How much more so, when the ‘doctor’ is our Creator, who only wants what is best for us!