Rabbi Binyamin Yuhanan Mystical Insights Into Parashat Ekev 1

one of my most favorite partial as last week's Parsha parashat has a lot of powerful messages that are applicable to our daily life and one of them is the famous verse found in a second Aliyah that says and if after you succeed and you'll be satisfied you'll build houses you'll have businesses you'll have money and your heart will become haughty and you will forget to Hashem how the verse says and you may say in your heart my strength and my might made me all this wealth the danger that the Torah is warning us is that a person who has everything might think that he is the source of it we remember how Paro the wicked pharaoh proclaimed Lee the river belonged to me and I made myself he became arrogant prideful and became a a dictator and didn't think about the um suffering of other people so that is the danger when you have everything you feel that I am independent I don't need God because I have nothing to ask him for I have everything already and therefore perhaps I'm all-powerful perhaps I don't need God Maybe what I have now is going to continue My Success my luck my wealth is going to continue so our sages say that uh money wealth is like a wheel and the will is spinning sometimes one point on the wheel is on top the next moment it's on the bottom so they say just say money is something that does not stay in one location that is why the Hebrew word for money is Zeus Zeus means move cash flow we know that the there is movement to money not only in economics and finances but also in persons destiny and what is it based on it is based on what the person's soul needs what the nishama needs that is what Hashem gives it if the person needs to be tested through wealth hashem's gonna give him wealth and he will want to see what will you do with the money that I give you will you help out the less fortunate will you use it to serve God will you say thank you to God or you become hoti and uh give the credit to yourself if a if a person needs the test of poverty Hashem will give him the test of poverty and the person will try to make money and he will not succeed the person will try to earn money and as much as he tries as much as he earns as much as people give him it's just not going to stay by him and we see such people no matter how much money comes in it all comes out at the end of the month they are always in debt they always trying to make ends meet how's it possible and the answer is because everything is preordained and you cannot say Hashem I deserved money I worked hard I got a degree I'm smart Hashem says you're making a mistake you only have money because I am testing you with money you only have success is because I helped you out and I decided that for you for your soul you need to have this position whether I want you to be a doctor or a lawyer or a successful businessman I want you to be in this position so that you meet these specific people and you have opportunity to interact with them and either help them or to fail your test and the reason why Hashem encourages inspires someone to become a businessman or become a doctor is because Hashem earlier predetermined each one of his tests and Hashem already decided do I want him to be rich or poor and therefore Hashem guides our life in the direction that he wants us to end up and therefore it's foolish to say I earned my money no you didn't Hashem is the one who wrote it before you were born that you will have this money so we have to be careful not to say in our own heart my strength and my own hands made me this wealth we have to realize that we humans are very frail yes we are very strong relatively but at the same time one little bug can kill us one little wind one little change in temperature one little defect in the body one little cut or inflammation can kill a person so it's very easy for Hashem to take away someone's money or success so we have to be very careful not to what's called put an ironhara on ourselves not to give ourselves an evil eye just like when people look at someone who is successful and they are jealous that's called putting evil eye on them and that can bring the person down so too we can put an evil eye on ourselves by being proud of our own achievements without saying thank you to Hashem it's permissible to feel good about your achievements but you have to right away say I'm so happy that I achieved it thank you Hashem for helping me thank you Hashem for allowing me thank you Hashem for giving me the Merit if we say it the success will continue but if we are proud emptyly without filling us ourselves up with the appreciation for God then Hashem will say you missed it I gave you good so that you enjoy and thank me and you enjoyed and didn't think not only that you used it in order to hurt others to put yourself above others to say I am better look at me I'm successful why isn't he trying why doesn't he get the job what's wrong with him I'm smart and he's not such thoughts even thoughts even if other people don't hear such thoughts are very dangerous for our own success again this is one of the most important principles in personal successful life to pay attention to your success be happy with your success and thank Hashem don't take the credit for yourself as soon as a person does Hashem will take it away for a person's own safety because if Hashem doesn't take away success the person will continue praising himself alone and pumping his ego and eventually he might start worshiping himself and that is very dangerous and and Hashem will save the person out of love and take away the success if success is so dangerous for that that person now the name of the Parsha akiv comes from the word heal heal the bottom part of our foot signifies the end rosh is the head the head is the beginning heal is the end in Hebrew the word achev is also used as the outcome as the outcome of what you do now is going to be something later because outcome is the end or another translation is reward because reward comes at the end it also hints to us to the time of mashiach the sages call the time of mashiach the hills of mashiach to on a simple level to tell us that the stage of mashiach is going to be very long and towards the end of that stage when mashir is going to come that's already called or we can interpret it footsteps of mashiach so that means our Parsha is hinting us how can we bring mashir faster and departure starts by saying this will be the reward if you listen to The Commandments of God and observe them the way to fulfill your mission in life to fulfill your potential and the potential for the entire Jewish nation is listening to Hashem and doing his mitzvot what will happen if we do akev is going to come active means reward active means the End of Time Echo means the times of mashiach and Hashem is describing the beautiful world that we are going to have and each individual is going to have right now Hashem will guard for you the Covenant and the kindness that he swore to your forefathers Hashem made the Covenant with our forefathers and he is obligated to keep it and Hashem is acting with us with kindness which means whether Hashem is going to give us reward because of our own fulfillment of mitzvot or because Hashem promised to our forefathers or because out of pity of kindness of Mercy for us as the sages say that I'm different ways that mashiach can come mashiach can come either when the generation is righteous that is when the Jewish people observe the mitzvot of Hashem or when the generation is guilty when the Jewish people unfortunately are not keep him in the Commandments and Hashem says mashiach is still going to come because of because I will do kindness to the Jewish people however the ideal way is not to depend on hashem's pity when we cannot do it ourselves but to help out Hashem the ideal way is to say Hashem you promised to our forefathers that you are going to save us from Exile bring us back to our land establish the kingdom of mashiach for us rebuild Jerusalem and the temple and you have to fulfill it but Hashem is going to be hard for you to fulfill your promise to our forefathers because we don't deserve yes you have to do it because you promised but at the same time you know that you're only doing it because of your obligation not because we did anything to step forward and to do our part Hashem we're going to do kindness to you we the Jewish people are going to be kind to Hashem how and I'll say just say that a Jewish person can show kindness to God by fulfilling Commandments how is it possible we keeping Shabbat putting on to film eating kosher we are doing kindness to God God doesn't need anything how can we help out God and the answer that Hashem out of his abundant kindness wants to benefit others he wants to give of his goodness to his creations but sometimes he can't because he wants us to deserve it he wants us to do at least something and uh therefore he is waiting for us and he's hoping when will this Jew as soon as he does my hands are going to be untied and I will shower him with goodness with blessing and Hashem will be so happy with the Jew who did emitzvah and Hashem will consider it as if the Jew did kindness for Hashem because Hashem wants very much to reward us to give us pleasure but he needs our involvement and our sages explain because if Hashem would give us undeserved pleasure we ourselves would not enjoy it we ourselves would feel bad that look at this I didn't deserve it and God is giving me doesn't feel good so Hashem said don't worry I'm going to give you opportunity to do a Mitzvah to do something for me and then when I give you the reward you're going to enjoy to the fullest because you're going to feel Independence that I deserved it I can with the Peace of Mind enjoy my stake because I made it myself so we are giving God the greatest pleasure of giving us greatest pleasure what's the greatest pleasure of a mother when she sees her child eating food that she made that's so much pleasure it's worth it to have a child just to feed him that's how good it is I would say just say in the talmud more does the cow want to feed the calf then the calf wants to drink from his mother the cow enjoys feeding the calf more than the cast enjoys drinking the milk now whether the cow really enjoys it I don't know but it is true for people we enjoy doing kindness we enjoy helping people we enjoy seeing how others benefit from our efforts and this is something that Hashem implanted in US because it is part of him God also has this uh trait that he is good he's kind and he wants to distribute kindness to everyone he wants to share he wants to give but because he doesn't want to just give it to us as he gives to animals animals don't have to do anything for God so the relationship is that of a Creator and and infinitesimally small creature a master and a Slave a an adult and a baby that has no understanding when God showers benefit and pleasure on animals that's the relationship Hashem doesn't get anything in return and animals don't enjoy the pleasures of the world as much as people do why not only because they're brain is not as developed that they don't have as many neurons and nerve endings and the nerves that bring the the the signals to the brain besides that they don't have the feeling of satisfaction that you get because I achieved something and the greater your effort the more effort you put in the greater your sacrifice the harder you work the more you enjoy at the end like it says sweet is the sleep of the laborer someone who is a lazy bum a couch potato when the time comes to sleep he doesn't enjoy it he was laying the whole day life becomes boring but a labor a hard-working man who works hard the entire day he comes home and he gets such pleasure from his sleep a person who has all the Delicacies in front of him the whole day he stops appreciating food but when he is hungry and then he gets food he enjoys it so much more so people have this additional benefit that we can achieve a state of ultimate pleasure when we do something for it especially if we have to pass a hard test so we can do kindness to God by allowing him to give us a reward yes a child can give pleasure to his mother by coming to her and saying mom I did my job please take me to the store to buy me a snack and the mother will say sure I didn't really need you to do the task I could have done it in a quarter of the time and twice as good I only asked this so that you become a mature adult I'm just training you I don't need your help just like God doesn't need our help I'm only asking use in order to raise you as a responsible person so that you will be successful and I only promised you a reward to encourage you to do something that's good for you and the mother will be so happy she'll say I see my son is maturing I see my son is growing up as a good man and I am so proud of him I'm going to go to the store with him and instead of buying something for five dollars that I promise I'm gonna buy for him for twenty dollars because I love him so much that is what Hashem does with us as soon as he sees one little effort a little light of hope that we are on the right path he rejoices and he showers us with good as it says the the amount of good that Hashem does is 500 times more than the amount of bad which means if a person does equal positive and negative for negative let's say negative one degree he will get one punishment but for a positive one degree he will get 500. times the reward why if you do a sin you get a hundred dollar fine if you do a Mitzvah you should get a hundred dollar reward pashem says no I'm not satisfied with giving you 100 reward because I'm giving you reward not only for yourself but also for me it gives me pleasure to God to give you reward and therefore I'm going to increase it 500 times not only for what you deserve but also because you did kindness to me because you allowed me to give you that one reward and for that I'm gonna give you another 500 times reward in the next section the Parsha speaks about the time the Jewish people spent in the desert and it says that actually it was planned it says remember the entire Road on which Hashem LED you these 40 years in a Wilderness why in order to afflict you to test you to know what is in your heart now we find the secret why the Jewish people spend 40 years in the desert and that is because we were tested by God as a nation how were we tested he Afflicted you and let your hunger and then he fed you man the Heavenly manna what kind of test is man in in order to make you know that not by bread alone does Man live rather by everything that emanates from the mouth of God does Man live to teach us coming back to the message we spoke earlier about that Hashem wants to that we should recognize that our success comes not because of our own effort but everything that emanates from the mouth of God does the Man live don't think that you are alive because of the bread that you yourself planted and harvested and made rather recognize that it what comes out from hashem's mouth what Hashem decrees that's what gives a man ability to live and the Hashem showed it to us because for 40 years we didn't have to work 40 years miraculously bread appeared on our doorstep and that was in order to teach us the lesson that we don't need to work hard we don't need to cheat in business we don't need to worry all we need is to patiently rely on God and Hashem will provide us with everything another test was will I worry for tomorrow man lasted only one day and one night then by the next morning it would spoil you couldn't save it and that further solidified in in the heart of of Jewish people that I don't need to worry about tomorrow because just like Hashem took care of me yesterday and he took care of me today so too he will take care of me tomorrow