'Hashem will bless you and multiply you'
Great good awaits those who toil in the ocean of the oral Torah - as well as those who go in the way of עקב: fulfilling all the mitzvot.
The parasha we read today opens with the glad tidings (7:13) , that Hashem ‘Will love you, bless you and multiply you..’ - when? (7:12) ‘When you hearken to these ordinances, and you observe and perform them’.
Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh asks rhetorically: Why does our Parasha open with the word והיה: ‘and it will be’ - expounding why we will merit these singular blessings - and answers: ’This word, our Sages teach, alludes to joy, meaning: it shall be joy to you, עקב: because you will heed these ordinances and keep them and perform them.’
Rashi brings the Midrash, on the words:עקב אשר תשמעון: ‘The reward when you hearken..’
Siftei Chachamim, on this Rashi, adds: ’Rashi expounded why the word עקב is used, it being the language of יען : because, used where there is certainty that what is said, will occur - in our case, Rashi’s commentary from the Midrash:’והיה עקב תשמעון : ‘This shall be the reward when you hearken to these ordinances..’:’If you will heed the minor commandments which one tramples with his heels.’
Rav David Halevi Segal - the ‘Turei Zahav’ - asks: ’Why is the reward for so doing, as our parsha continues, to expound( 7:13):’that He’ - Hashem, will love you, bless and multiply you’? Granted that the love of Bnei Israel is understandable, as it says:’And you shall love Hashem, your G-d’, but what is the love of Hashem, for Israel?
‘Assuredly there is great reward for the performance of Mitzvot, according to what is merited; but, because of the love of Hashem, He will give him reward greater than deserved - why?
‘This is why Rashi commented:’If you will heed the minor commandments which one tramples with his heels’ - meaning: you observe that which the obligation to observe is , not clear - those minor mitzvot which people ‘trample’ with their heels, and your obligation to perform them, is beyond the letter of the law, you, too, will merit extra affection from Hashem, than your action merits, measure-for- measure.’
Rav Moshe Feinstein comments:’The idea that Rashi brings - that the reward is for hearkening to easy mitzvot that men trample under their heel - is a wonder: how can there be mitzvot that man tramples under his heel? How can people trample Hashem’s commands? How - today - can there be people who so disrespect the prohibition of niddah, which is punishable by כרת: extermination and lashes - or on other forbidden serious transgressions?
‘How can there be trampling of the serious prohibition against lashon ha’ra, or on the tefilla of Shacharit and the rest of the ordained tefillot without proper intention - how are there people that desecrate the Shabbat?
‘The answer - so far as grown-ups are concerned, is out of over a period doing so gradually, till it becomes their rote - and something which becomes a person’s regular way, is very hard to break and to alter.
‘With children it is easier to speak and to teach - they can be educated, as, when they are still young, they can be influenced - and to especially warn them as to prohibited foods, so they do not become lax in regard to them; and so too, as to modesty, so that it becomes part of them, and so too, as to proper prayer, lashon ha’ra and Shabbat - and that there is an obligation to complete a Mitzvah once started, in its completeness.’.
The Slonimer Rebbe - the Darchei Noam - also wonders:’What is the meaning of our Rashi: what is a מצוה קלה : a light Mitzvah, and why is it so-called, what is the meaning of the words:’That a person tramples them under his heel - is there a person who tramples under his heel a Mitzvah of the mitzvot of the Torah, even be it ‘light’?
The answer is that there are in the Torah 613 mitzvot, regarding each of which the Torah commands us how to perform it, in all its particulars, as we are adjured in the Shulchan Aruch, and the poskim.
‘But there are also mitzvot which the Torah wrote in a general way, without describing how they are to be performed, such as - in Parashat Va’Etchanan (6:18):’Do what is right and good in the eyes of G-d’, which obligates us us to do what is good and right in the eyes of Hashem, in all matters- even those that the Torah does not command us specifically.
‘The Ramban, in his commentary, expounds that this refers to מדות טובות: proper character traits - and also to the injunction 19:2):’קדושים תהיו כי קדוש אני: ‘You shall be holy, for I, the Lord, your G-d, am holy’ - which is a general commandment governing how we are to act, even in matters which are permitted.
‘These are in the nature of ‘light mitzvot’, as their details are not commanded, in the Torah
These are the ‘light mitzvot’, and what causes people to, as it were ‘trample them under their heel’, as they do not feel that they are transgressing, as they are not fully proscribed in the Torah - unlike the 613 detailed mitzvot.
‘The singular reward the Torah in our Parasha gives to those who are careful not ‘to trample these mitzvot under their heel’ - is that Hashem ‘will love’ them, is because one who does that ‘which is good and right in the eyes of Hashem’ - those whose heart is pure.
‘Our Parasha being the only place that this is said concerning individuals - the other place where it says that Hashem will love us, relates to the whole of the people of Israel (Ki Teitze 23:6).
‘The rest of the singular blessings in our Parasha, are specifically to the pure of heart, who do that which ‘is good and right in the eyes of Hashem’, whom Hashem loves.’
The Netivot Shalom - the revered previous Slonimer Rebbe - also notes that the like of the blessing in our Parasha:Hashem ‘will love you’ and ‘bless you’, is not found any where else in the Torah - in Parashat Bechokotai, for instance, the rewards for heeding Hashem’s ordinances - and in the second parasha of Kriyat Shema - are all material rewards, whereas in our Parasha is that Hashem will love you.’
The Rav brings a beautiful explanation, as to this, from the holy tome, Be’er Mayim Chayim, in the name of Rabbi Michel MiZlotshov: ’A Jew need to observe the Torah nd the mitzvot solely to Hashem- to give Him nachat ruach, but without regard to his own needs - not even the the reward of the World-to-Come, and its unmatched pleasure.
‘This is what our psukim- והיה עקב:’This shall be the reward when you hearken to these ordinances, and you observe and perform them..He will love you, bless you..’- allude to:ושמרתם: ‘literally: guard, them from any thought of self, as this derogates from its completeness.
‘This is why the passuk says:’ observe AND PERFORM them’, as performing them, in itself, is not what is required- but that first ‘you guard it’, that it be solely to Hashem, and the following words:’Hashem, your G-d, will safeguard for you the covenant and the kindness..’, is not a promise of reward, but a sign that you have fulfilled the mitzvot in their completeness, without any self interest, as if one performs the mitzvot in completeness, then Hashem ‘will love you, bless you’ and confer all His other blessings - as set out in our parasha, on you.
Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch adds:’The first outcome of observing Hashem’s mitzvot, is that ‘He will love you’ - He will see in you His faithful servant, since you subjugate your will, before His will - in the manner that a Master loves his faithful servant.
‘For this, He will ‘bless you’, since all your deeds advance only that accords with His will, and you observe- and therefore - your success is the success of Hashem’s work in this world - He will therefore ‘bless you in all that you do, and finally ‘multiply you..You will be the most blessed of all the people..’
Alshich Hakadosh elucidates:’I have written, that till now, our relationship with Hashem, is like that of a king who says to his beloved son::Till now I have showered my blessings on you, because of my love for your father.
‘But from now, be my faithful soldier, doing that which I command you, you will not have need to the blessings in the merit of your father, as I will love you on your own account, just as I loved your father, and I will do good to you, because of my love for you.
‘I will - at the same time - keep and safeguard my love for your father for when a great need arises - as we read:’Hashem, your G-d, will safeguard for you the covenant and the kindness that He swore to your forefathers.’
‘As to the blessings I shall shower on you, on your own account, in addition to your being my beloved, just as your father was, I ‘will love you..’
Malbim, on the very same matter, says:’’He will love you’: Apart from ‘safeguarding for you the covenant and the kindness that He swore to your forefathers’, as to inheriting the Land and settling it, ‘He will love you and bless you and multiply you’, be it in the number of offspring, be it in the plentifulness of the produce of your land and of your flocks, ‘on the Land that He swore to your forefathers, to give to you’ - the Land you shall inherit in the merit of your forefathers, but the other increases in your children, and possessions, these He did not promise to your forefathers to give to them - these you will receive as reward in this world, for hearkening to the ordinances.’
The Abarbanel similarly expounds:’The purport of our psukim, is that Hashem informed them, that, beside keeping for them the covenant and the kindness He swore to their forefathers, He would also shower them with other goodnesses, in their own merit - not in the merit of their forefathers to- these being, by additional external goodnesses, they being: ’He will love you, bless you and multiply you’, meaning: in addition to that which he swore to the Avot, He will further love you on your own account, and bless you with great increase, if in the fruit of your womb - offspring - if in your flocks.
‘The words: ’on the Land that He swore to your forefathers to give you’, its purport is: That He - Hashem —only promised the Avot the inheritance of the Land, and the promises of increase, were not included in that promise.
‘He therefore said: ’To safeguard for you the covenant and the kindness that He swore to your forefathers’ - being the inheritance of the Land, and, beyond that which He swore to them, He will love you, and bless you, and multiply you and all your possessions.’
Ba’al HaTurim - Rav Yaakov ben Asher - some six hundred years ago, noted: ‘There are עקב: 172 words in the first luchot - the Ten Commandments - which is alluded to in (Ps’ 19:12): בשמרם עקב רב :': ‘In observing them there is great reward’ - if you observe עקב, you will be rewarded by ( Ps 31:20):’How great is Your goodness that You have laid away for those who fear You.’
Rav Tzadok from Lublin - the Pri Tzaddik -sweetens our souls,.by adding: The Ba’al Haturim noted that there are עקב: 172 words in the first Ten Dibrot, and I noted that our passuk is written after the Second Luchot’ - and not the first ones, to which it relates.
‘When we turn to the Second Luchot, we find that there are in it 17 additional words - the minyan of טו'ב: good, on which our Sages expounded ( Baba Kama 55.):’Why, in the first dibrot the word ‘good’ does not appear, while in the second luchot, it does? - טוב alluding to the ‘light which was good, being the first light that was hidden for those who toil in the oral Torah (Tanchuma, Noach ).
‘The Ba'alei Midrash say that, in the second luchot that Hashem gave, He gave the midrash, the halachot and the אגדות: the legends - which are the oral Torah.
‘This is what the Ba’al Haturm had in mind, the great reward for אם תשמור עק’ב : the 172 words in the first luchot, you will merit the reward of: ’How great is the goodness that you have laid away for those who fear You.’
We can now also, in my humble opinion, understand why Hashem loves those who observe the first luchot - alluded to by the number of words being עקב - when we note that they did not include mention of their observance being טוב - as was the case in the second luchot: because it alludes to performing all that was commanded, without thought of reward.
The teaching of Rav Sa’adia Gaon, that all 613 mitzvot are alluded to in the first luchot, gives an additional reason for Hashem’s singular reward of His love and blessings for those who observe in the way of עקב- all the mitzvot.
Should you ask: Why, then, was טוב written in the second luchot ? We have the well-known exposition of our Sages: that, as the fate of the first luchot was to be shattered, the people should not ח'ו conclude that there will not again, be good.
Indeed, as we have brought, great good awaits those who toil in the ocean of the oral Torah - as well as those who go in the way of עקב: fulfilling all the mitzvot.
Ben Ish Hai, a parting gem:’The observance of Torah and the mitzvot depends on the unity and love that Bnei Israel have for one another, and it is well known that the ten dibrot have 172 words - the gematriya of עקב.
‘The final word in the ten dibrot is לרעיך: which alludes to the love and comity being found amongst us, and then you will definitely ‘Hearken to these ordinances, and observe and perform them.’
And the reward for so doing - as our Parasha promises - is that Hashem ‘will love you, bless you and multiply you.’
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/413366
Published: Aug 16, 2025, 8:38 PM (GMT+3) Where is GMT+3 location from?
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