The Weekly Dvar Torah
Volume I Issue #1
Sifsei Cohen
Parshas B'Chukosy
Adapted from the wisdom of Rav Meir Simcha HaCohen of Dvinsk from the Meshech Chochmoh and Rav Tzadok HaCohen from Pri Tzadik and other works.
By Rav Yitzchak Schwartz Rosh Yeshiva Orchos Chaim Jerusalem
yschwartz@orchos.org.
Rabbeinu Rav Meir Simcha, in his classic work on chumash: Meshech Chochmo, reveals an extremely important fundamental in hashkofas haTorah. We often think that what we need in life is a miracle to achieve what we need and desire from the material world. But the truth is that Hashem does not want to perform miracles. We tend to think that the limitations of the natural order deny us the wealth and pleasures of the physical world. Nothing could be further from the truth. Rav Meir Simcha explains that in reality nature’s capacity for material blessing is virtually boundless. As long as we walk in the ways of Hashem and observe the Torah with integrity nature will provide a level of abundance beyond our greatest ambitions. There is however one condition; we must be aware that nature itself is not really natural. Nature is an unbroken chain of miracles that the human eye becomes accustomed to. Only when we realize that the natural order is really a predictable flow of miracles that Hashem employs to tend to our every need, b’hashgocho protis, will nature pour forth its bounty with virtually no limitations. We can receive the greatest of material blessings in a perfectly natural way without resort to revealed miracles. This is the path that Hashem desires for His world.
This is what the Torah conveys to us in this week’s portion Vayikro 26:3-4 “If you go in my statutes I will give you your rains in the proper time and the land will give forth its produce and the tree of the field will give its fruit. You will empty your silos from the old crop to make room for the new harvest because it will be so abundant etc”. There are no promises of miracles in these verses rather the earth itself will bestow its riches in the most natural way. The blessing is that the quantity and quality of nature’s bounty will exceed well beyond what we normally could expect.
Hashem designed the forces of nature with Divine wisdom, i.e. with the Torah itself, and in so doing bound the forces of nature inextricably to the observance of Torah. One can look at it this way. The Torah itself is the Neshama, the life force, of all natural forces; enabling it to function to its highest degree of perfection in exacting correlation with our observance of it. If we will follow the statutes of the Torah the physical laws of the universe will function to its highest perfection that the Creator has ordained.
The predictable and continual manifestation of natural phenomena carries with it the danger that we may think that nature is a separate entity independent of the Creator. In order to safeguard us from this dangerous and errant perception Hashem occasionally makes miracles. The purpose of these miracles is to remind us that nature does not stand on its own; rather it is the entirely pure providence of Hashem who desires to bless us with his kindness every moment. This is why the Talmud (Shabbos 118b) tells us that one who recites the Hallel every day is tantamount to blasphemy and sacrilege, because he demonstrates that it one needs to praise Hashem only for his wondrous miracles and ignores the fact that the natural order is no less miraculous than the supernatural. Whereas one who recites the Psalm “Tehila L’Dovid, i.e. Ashrei” (Talmud Brochos 4b) is assured a special portion in olam haboh because this Psalm is the praise of Hashem for the natural order that manifests Hashem’s loving kindness.
By Rav Yitzchak Schwartz Rosh Yeshiva Orchos Chaim Jerusalem
yschwartz@orchos.org.
Rabbeinu Rav Meir Simcha, in his classic work on chumash: Meshech Chochmo, reveals an extremely important fundamental in hashkofas haTorah. We often think that what we need in life is a miracle to achieve what we need and desire from the material world. But the truth is that Hashem does not want to perform miracles. We tend to think that the limitations of the natural order deny us the wealth and pleasures of the physical world. Nothing could be further from the truth. Rav Meir Simcha explains that in reality nature’s capacity for material blessing is virtually boundless. As long as we walk in the ways of Hashem and observe the Torah with integrity nature will provide a level of abundance beyond our greatest ambitions. There is however one condition; we must be aware that nature itself is not really natural. Nature is an unbroken chain of miracles that the human eye becomes accustomed to. Only when we realize that the natural order is really a predictable flow of miracles that Hashem employs to tend to our every need, b’hashgocho protis, will nature pour forth its bounty with virtually no limitations. We can receive the greatest of material blessings in a perfectly natural way without resort to revealed miracles. This is the path that Hashem desires for His world.
This is what the Torah conveys to us in this week’s portion Vayikro 26:3-4 “If you go in my statutes I will give you your rains in the proper time and the land will give forth its produce and the tree of the field will give its fruit. You will empty your silos from the old crop to make room for the new harvest because it will be so abundant etc”. There are no promises of miracles in these verses rather the earth itself will bestow its riches in the most natural way. The blessing is that the quantity and quality of nature’s bounty will exceed well beyond what we normally could expect.
Hashem designed the forces of nature with Divine wisdom, i.e. with the Torah itself, and in so doing bound the forces of nature inextricably to the observance of Torah. One can look at it this way. The Torah itself is the Neshama, the life force, of all natural forces; enabling it to function to its highest degree of perfection in exacting correlation with our observance of it. If we will follow the statutes of the Torah the physical laws of the universe will function to its highest perfection that the Creator has ordained.
The predictable and continual manifestation of natural phenomena carries with it the danger that we may think that nature is a separate entity independent of the Creator. In order to safeguard us from this dangerous and errant perception Hashem occasionally makes miracles. The purpose of these miracles is to remind us that nature does not stand on its own; rather it is the entirely pure providence of Hashem who desires to bless us with his kindness every moment. This is why the Talmud (Shabbos 118b) tells us that one who recites the Hallel every day is tantamount to blasphemy and sacrilege, because he demonstrates that it one needs to praise Hashem only for his wondrous miracles and ignores the fact that the natural order is no less miraculous than the supernatural. Whereas one who recites the Psalm “Tehila L’Dovid, i.e. Ashrei” (Talmud Brochos 4b) is assured a special portion in olam haboh because this Psalm is the praise of Hashem for the natural order that manifests Hashem’s loving kindness.