Parshas Ekev
מיכאל ריאש
Like Eretz Mitzrayim
ז“ל הרשב“ם כי הארץ הזאת טובה מכל הארצות לשומרי מצותיו ורעה מכל הארצות ללא שומרם כו‘ ע“ש.
Rashbam: “This land is better than any other to those who keep Hashem’s commandments - and it is worse than any other to those who don’t.”
דברים יא(י) כִּי הָאָרֶץ כו‘ לֹא כְאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם הִוא אֲשֶׁר כו‘ וְהִשְׁקִיתָ בְרַגְלְךָ כְּגַן הַיָּרָֽק. כו‘ (יא) לִמְטַר הַשָּׁמַיִם תִּשְׁתֶּה־מָּֽיִם. (יב) אֶרֶץ אֲשֶׁר־ה‘ אֱלֹהֶיךָ דֹּרֵשׁ אֹתָהּ תָּמִיד עֵינֵי ה‘ אֱלֹהֶיךָ בָּהּ כו‘ (יג) וְהָיָה אִם־שָׁמֹעַ כו‘ (יד) וְנָֽתַתִּי מְטַֽר כו‘ (פירש“י שבא“י אין צריכין לטרוח כמו במצרים.)
D’varim 11(10-14): “For this land... is not like the land of Mitzrayim that you left... where you could water it on foot like a vegetable garden... [Eretz Yisroel] drinks from the rain of heaven. It is a land with which Hashem concerns himself; his eyes are always on it... And it will be that if you keep his commandments... I will give the rain in its time...” (Rashi - in Eretz Yisroel, you won’t need to work as hard as in Mitzrayim, carrying water from the Nile for irrigation.)
Eretz Yisroel is a place of השגחה פרטית, of divine supervision. Unlike Egypt, one cannot live there without rain - and the rain only falls through Hashem’s supervision, to those who keep his mitzvos. Therefore, Israel will always need to keep his Torah and turn to him for their sustenance. And this will draw them closer to him.
Not like Mitzrayim. There Hashem gave them sustenance once and for all, from the Nile, and כביכול they don’t need to turn to him. To a believer in Hashem, to one who wants to be close to him, this seems like a very bad thing indeed.
But look a little further. For once upon a time, there was a place like this in Eretz Yisroel as well:
בראשית יג(י) וַיִּשָּׂא־לוֹט אֶת־עֵינָיו כו‘ כִּכַּר הַיַּרְדֵּן כִּי כֻלָּהּ מַשְׁקֶה לִפְנֵי שַׁחֵת ה‘ אֶת־סְדֹם וְאֶת־עֲמֹרָה כְּגַן־ה‘ כְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם
Breishis 13(10): “Lot lifted his eyes... there was the breadbasket of the Jordan, all moist, before Hashem had destroyed Sedom and Amorah; like a garden of Hashem, like Eretz Mitzrayim...”
ככר הירדן: a area watered by the Jordan. Perhaps in those days the Jordan even rose over its banks each year as the Nile does. All moist: there they didn’t need rain. Like a garden of Hashem: like Gan Eden before the Sin. And see Sanhedrin 109a, אנשי סדום לא נתגאו אלא בשביל טובה שהשפיע להם הקדוש ברוך הוא כו‘ ע“ש, “The people of Sedom only became arrogant because of the goodness that Hashem poured down on them...”
In the gemara Nedarim 32a there is a complaint against Avraham Avinu: after the battle of the Four Kings, he returned the captives to the King of Sedom, and didn’t bring them under the wings of the shechinah. Avraham had an enormous influence on all the people of all the nations around - all except Sedom. The people of Sedom didn’t need anything, didn’t need him, didn’t think they needed Hashem, and they wouldn’t listen. So Hashem arranged (see Bava Metzia 73b) that they be put under Avraham’s influence by force.
He didn’t think he could do it, and they continued to get worse. In the end they were completely destroyed. And that is why we don’t have that part of Eretz Yisroel.
Obviously, whenever Chazal see a lacking in one of the Avos Hakedoshim, it is incredibly subtle and relevant to someone on his level alone. Still, perhaps one can speculate that if he had been zoche to that complete level of emunah, he would have felt able to influence even the people of Sedom. Perhaps we too would have more emunah, wouldn’t need such a visible display of hashgacha all the time. Then we would be able to use the richest part of Eretz Yisroel as well.
We are all familiar with the words of Chazal, that Hashem desires the prayers of tzaddikim. He therefore sometimes brings them into situations where they need him badly - to hear their prayers. He wants to be close to us, and we all know that we pray better in emergencies. But how much better it would be if we could reach the level of praying to him sincerely, being close to him, without any emergencies.
(See also Yechezkel Ch. 47 that in the future Sedom will return to us. And see Taanis 10a that Bavel was a place that didn’t need rain.)
Nisayon in the Torah
Say someone is working to perfect himself in some way. But say he’s still not there yet; sometimes he succeeds, sometimes not. Obviously, that isn’t the time for Hashem to test him. What could a test show then anyway? If he succeeds, it was happenstance. If he failed, it was happenstance as well.
On the other hand, after the person has finally succeeded and acquired the character trait that he has been trying to build, then Hashem may test him, and give him a nisayon that will prove his improvement. It would demonstrate to all that he succeeded in acquiring that character trait - for the test is one that could never passed any other way.
Thus did Hashem test Avraham Avinu. Three days after his bris, when he was very sick, when it was tremendously hot, he ran out and brought in guests.... For him to succeed then was no happenstance; it could never have been done unless he had completely acquired the midah of hospitality.
So too with the Akeidah - no one could have succeeded but him. And so too with any real nisayon.
What about in the other direction? If someone has fallen ח"ו from his level and ruined his fine character, then Hashem may send a test to him that demonstrates and proves his loss to all. We find that with the story of Kamtza and Bar Kamtza. We were keeping the Torah so well in those days! No one would ever had understood why Hashem destroyed his Beis Hamikdash. Who would have known about the sin’as chinam that lay hidden in our hearts, בעוונתינו הרבים? But Hashem brought about that the sin’ah was revealed to all. A person threw another out of his home with tremendous humiliation. And that other person - well he retaliated by destroying his own nation and his Beis Hamikdash... Who would believe such a thing if it had not happened? But Hashem revealed it to us, and now we know.
Let me bring a parable to make the point a little further. Reuven and Shimon cross a street every day. Reuven always looks both ways, checks for danger. Shimon never bothers; he just rushes across.
Most of the time, it doesn’t matter, and both of them cross safely. But one day a car comes very quickly, and only Reuven is saved. After many smaller incidents there was one major incident, with permanent consequences.
The truth is that in this physical world, the parable is imperfect. There isn’t always a identity between what should be and what is; occasionally Shimon will actually be the one who is saved. But in the world of רוחניות, the world of Hashem and his hashgacha, it isn’t so; the identity is complete. If someone has succeeded in a spiritual matter, Hashem creates for him a nisayon to bring his success from potential to actual, perhaps even with consequences for all generations. And someone who ח"ו brought himself down in a certain issue, there also Hashem gives him the chance to slip in something very important, to establish his fall in a permanent way chalilah. (See what I wrote on D’varim 17(8) concerning בחירה, large and small. The nisayon finalizes and establishes the choice.)
It seems to me that this is why the Torah generally emphasizes events, rather than talking about midos. Events in the Torah don’t stand on their own. Rather, every event is a demonstration and an affirmation of the way the person has shaped his life and his character.
There are many examples, but here are two more: When Yisro brings a guest into his home and gains the greatest chasan imaginable for his daughter - we understand that he was worthy of it, that he had been behaving this way his whole life. And if Esav scorned the bechorah, that too tells us how he was; it was hidden in his heart the whole time. So eventually he lost the bechorah completely.