Parshas Eikev
By Rabbi David Zauderer (Toronto, Canada)
In this week’s Torah portion, Parshas Eikev, Moses continues to recount with the Jewish people all that they had gone through over the past forty years in the desert, and he reminds them of the miraculous manna which G-d sent down for them from heaven:
"He afflicted you and let you hunger, then He fed you the manna that you did not know, nor did your forefathers know, in order to make you know that not by bread alone does man live, rather by everything that emanates from the mouth of G-d does man live." (Deuteronomy 8:3).
The famed Mashgiach Ruchani (spiritual mentor) of the Mir Yeshivah in pre-war Poland, Rabbi Yeruchom Levovitz ZTâ€L (1873-1936), explains (in Da’as Torah on Parshas Beshalach) that the heavenly manna that the Jewish people ate in the desert for forty years was meant to teach them three very powerful and life-changing lessons that they needed to know before they entered the Land of Israel, there to live normal, non-miraculous lives.
The first powerful lesson of the heavenly manna that the Jewish people were taught in the desert is that just as G-d sustained the entire nation for forty years with the miraculous manna, even though it contained none of the Recommended Daily Allowances of the essential vitamins and minerals officially needed to maintain good health, so, too, when we eat "regular" foods like bread, we should recognize that is it not the bread itself, but purely the will of G-d inside the bread that sustains us … so we had better listen to everything G-d commands us to do.
As Nachmanides writes in his commentary to the aforementioned verse: “… And [Moses] explained that [G-d] did this (i.e. sustained you through the manna) in order to inform you that it is He Who preserves the life of man with whatever he decrees; if so, observe His commandments and live.â€
The second powerful lesson of the heavenly manna comes from a verse in Parshas Beshalach, where the Torah relates the amazing miracle that happened when the Jews would go out each morning to gather the manna for their families:
“The Children of Israel did so and they gathered, he who took much and he who took little. They measured in an ‘omer’ and whoever took more had nothing extra, and whoever took less was not lacking; everyone according to what he eats had they gathered†(Exodus 16:17-18).
That’s incredible! No matter how much extra (or how much less) manna they would gather for themselves, when they came home, they found that – miracle of miracles -everybody got exactly what he needed for his family, no more and no less!!
The lesson here is obvious. How many people do we know who spend huge amounts of time and effort to make money and become rich – but all their efforts are for naught. And yet others become wealthy with minimal effort. Is there anyone still left on our planet who thinks that wealth is a direct result of hishtadlus (effort)?
Indeed, the Talmud in Beitzah 15b states: “All of a person’s income is fixed each year from Rosh Hashanah until Yom Kippur …â€
So we might as well spend less time at the office and more time with the family and other important pursuits.
The third powerful lesson taught to us by the heavenly manna in the desert comes from the next verse in Parshas Beshalach (ibid):
“Moses said to them, ‘No man may leave over from it until morning’. But they did not obey Moses and people left over from it until morning and it became infested with worms and it stank …’†(ibid.16:19-20).
Some of the Jewish people were worried that the supply of manna would run out and they would starve to death. So they starting hoarding manna in defiance of Moses who had commanded them not to save the manna for the next day. And of course the leftover manna spoiled, just as Moses said it would.
The lesson we are being taught here is that even though a person might have a lot of savings in the bank – there are no guarantees. We all know people who saved up huge amounts of money only to lose it all in one bad investment or ponzi scheme. Just like each day’s manna which only lasted one full day and then spoiled, so, too, do we need to rely on G-d that he should give us what we need now and later on in life – even as we put in our own hishtadlus and effort to save money - as our future is never secured.
This discussion has halachic ramifications. In 1963, the great Posek (halachic decisor) Rabbi Moshe Feinstein ZTâ€L was asked whether buying life insurance betrays a lack of trust - perhaps we are supposed to trust that G-d will take care of us? Perhaps, as some Talmudic statements seem to say, as long as we have our sustenance now, we need not and should not work to secure our future? Perhaps security only comes from G-d, and to act otherwise lacks faith?
Rabbi Feinstein responds (and this is the opinion of most other halachic authorities as well) that insurance is no different than other business endeavors, which we are allowed and obligated to pursue. To do otherwise would arrogantly assume we are so meritorious as to have our needs taken care of even without working.
Even those who are that meritorious have to work, because we are not allowed to rely on miracles. We cannot expect to be supported miraculously. While working, we also have to know that our successes are all supported by G-d, are not purely a function of our own efforts. That’s what the heavenly manna taught us.
That balance is a challenge to many Jews today. Some treat livelihood as if it will come without effort, others treat it as completely a result of their own efforts. Rabbi Feinstein is reminding us of the two sides to keep in mind - our effort is required and it’s also all from G-d.
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