פרשה: עקב · עלייה: שישי (יסוד)

והארק אשר אתם עוברים שמה, "and the land which you are crossing over to, etc." Why does Moses repeat the words: "the land you are crossing over to," having said something almost identical in verse 10 already? I believe we have to understand these two verses as follows. Although the Torah had already extolled the virtues of the land of Canaan, describing it as a land flowing with milk and honey, the Torah had to contrast it with Egypt which is also a land blessed with excellent produce as the Torah had testified in Genesis 13,10: "like a garden of G'd, like the land of Egypt." Moses explains that whereas Egypt receives its bounty only by means of natural means, without special providence by G'd, it has another disadvantage compared to the land of Canaan in that you have to irrigate the land with back-breaking labour, whereas in the land of Canaan the rain does the irrigating.

אשר ה׳ אלוקיך דרש, "which the Lord your G'd enquires after (all the time)." Moses emphasises the word אלוקיך, "your G'd" to remind us that the excellence of this land is conditional on the mutually exclusive relationship between Israel and its G'd. If Israel were to find itself in exile due to its sins, the land would not prove excellent for whoever would dwell in it after Israel would be expelled.

והיה אם שמע תשמעו, "and it will be if you will surely hearken, etc." The meaning of the word והיה is usually that something joyful will occur. Moses tempers this by making the joy conditional on it being due to performance of G'd's commandments. Moses continues with the conditional אם [as opposd to the word כאשר "when," Ed.]. The reason is analogous to what we have learned in Shabbat 30 that the only kind of joy Solomon praised was the joy generated through מצוה-performance. Concerning all other kinds of joy Kohelet 2,2 applies, i.e. ולשמחה מה זה עושה, "and of joy, what does it accomplish?" Moses repeated the word שמע based on a comment in Berachot 55 on Daniel 2,21 "He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledgable." G'd does not grant wisdom unless a person has already acquired a measure of wisdom. When Moses says: "if you will hearken" he means if you already have a wise heart and are mentally prepared to hearken, G'd will grant you more such wisdom so that you will surely hearken to G'd."

לאהבה…ולעבדו…ונתתי, "to love G'd..to serve Him;..and I will give the rain, etc." In view of previous statements to the effect that the reward for מצוה-performance is not paid in this life, Moses assures the people if their service is of a quality that is equivalent to their loving G'd with all their heart then they will also experience compensation in this life. This is the meaning of the conjunctive letter ו at the beginning of the word ונתתי in verse 14. Receiving rainfall at the appropriate time is not the reward for their מצוה-performance but is something additional, i.e. ו, plus. The reward itself is stored up for the Hereafter. Moses also hints that although a good livelihood is one of the three blessings which are within the province of mazzal and not of personal merit as we explained repeatedly (Moed Katan 28), when the nation serves the Lord in the above-mentioned manner Israel as a whole will rise above mazzal and everything which happens to it comes under the scrutiny of the personal providence of G'd.

בכל לבבכם ובכל נפשכם, "with all your hearts and with all your souls." In this instance Moses did not mention מאדכם, "your material assets" as he did in Deut. 6,5. The reason is that the paragraph in Deut. 6 was addressed to the individual Jew whereas this paragraph is addressed to the nation as a whole. Whereas it is possible to find an individual who values his material assets over and above his very life, the Torah had to command that Jew not to do so. Amongst the people collectively it is psychologically impossible to find them value their assets as worth dying for. In such a setting, the rule applies that people will give up all their wealth in order to save their lives. As soon as Moses had told the people that they should love the Lord with all their souls, it went without saying that the same applies to all their material assets.

לא תתן את יבולה, "it will not yield its produce." Although Moses had already said that G'd would lock the heavens he repeated that the earth would not yield its produce to tell the people that even if they were to plant their fields adjacent to rivers and wells the earth would not produce a harvest.

ואבדתם מהוה, "and you will perish quickly, etc." Even if you somehow find a harvest dating back to previous years you will still perish. We have an illustration of this curse in Gittin 56 where the Talmud tells how Jewish zealots deliberately destroyed a 21 year supply of grain owned by a certain Kalba Savua during the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans.

למען ירבו ימיכם, "that your days may multiply, etc." Why did Moses not write this verse prior to verse 20, i.e. the writing down of this paragraph and attaching it to the doorposts? If that had been the case our verse and the blessing it contains would also be part of the promise in what was to be attached to the doorposts? Perhaps Moses chose this order in order to teach us that the fulfilment of the commandment in verse 20 would bring in its wake the blessing contained in verse 21. This may be what the Talmud (Shabbat 32) had in mind when it stated that "anyone who takes the commandment of the Mezuzah seriously has his lifespan extended." [The only quotation I was able to find on that folio was that neglect of the commandment of Mezuzah may result in premature death. This itself is questionable. Ed.]