Thursday, August 18, 2011

Dvar Torah for Parshas Eikev


       Parshas Eikev continues the theme of Sefer Devarim with Moshe giving his farewell address to Bnei Yisrael. The Parshah opens with Moshe telling Bnei Yisrael all the good that awaits them if they keep the mitzvos. “בָּרוּךְ תִּהְיֶה מִכָּל הָעַמִּים…” “You will be blessed more than all other nations…” (7:14), this is one of the rewards Moshe tells Bnei Yisrael that they will receive for fulfilling the Torah. The pasuk is explained not like the simple translation, rather instead of translating the pasuk like we did earlier, you read it, “You will be blessed from (by) all the other nations”, that the nations will bless you. But this will not be a brachah that they will want to give. Instead, it will be the same as when the two malachim (angels), one good and one bad, come to the house on Friday night. If the house is ready for Shabbos, the good angel blesses the home and the bad angel is forced to say Amen. The same way the bad angel is forced to agree with the good angel’s blessing, the nations will be forced to bless us.
       The Abarbanel asks, how is this a brachah? What good does it do the Bnei Yisrael to have the nations of the world forced to agree to our goodness? The Kli Yakar answers that the nations of the world need us more then we need them. We know that Eretz Yisrael is, “ארץ אשר תמיד עיני ה' אלוקיך בה” “the land which Hashem’s eyes are constantly upon it” (11:10). He wants to explain this concept that Hashem looks at Eretz Yisrael first to determine what it needs, and then and only then, based off of that, Hashem distributes the needs of the rest of the world. So the whole world’s supplies come from Hashem’s attention to Eretz Yisrael. According to this, it’s easy to see why the Goyim bless us, only through our good fortunes do their good fortunes come. Still, they only do this begrudgingly since the only reason they bless us is for their own good and not because they love us. If they were not connected to us, they wouldn’t bother to bless us. However, this is only when we keep the mitzvos, otherwise we have no control over the nation’s livelihood.
       How lucky we are to have been given Eretz Yisrael, the land from which the whole world’s fate hinges! We should be zoche to keep the Torah and mitzvos to such a degree that that control of the world is once again in our hands and we should reach a state where the entire world sings the praises of the Jewish Nation, but this time not from necessity, but from pure admiration.   

Shabbat Shalom!





AIMeM

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