You Were Warned!

פרק ח

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ָּל־הַמִּצְוָה אֲשֶׁר אָֽנֹכִי מְצַוְּךָ הַיּוֹם תִּשְׁמְרוּן לַֽעֲשׂוֹת לְמַעַן תִּֽחְיוּן וּרְבִיתֶם וּבָאתֶם וִֽירִשְׁתֶּם אֶת־הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר־נִשְׁבַּע יְהוָֹה לַֽאֲבֹֽתֵיכֶֽם:

 

All the commandments which I command you this day shall you take care to do, that you may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to your fathers.

Ben Ish Hai Derashoth:

The Maharim z”l wrote that a person who is healthy and strong, can eat any kind of food and consume any drinks without being harmed. He doesn’t need to weigh the amounts of what he eats because his body tolerates everything.

If, however, this person would overindulge, eating exceptionally heavy foods, to the extent that he became sick, even if he would take some medication to counteract the symptoms, nevertheless, from that time onwards, he will have to be very careful about everything he eats. He will have to consider what foods he eats and the quantities, otherwise he will once again become ill. 

The same applies to the Land of Israel. When Israel was inhabited by the seven nations, it tolerated, for years, the abominations that they did. When finally, the Land could not take it anymore, it expelled them. Now, that the Jewish people are there, if we do even a fraction (1/10th) of what they did, the Land will throw us out.

From the words of the Maharim we can understand why G-d gave the Jewish people this land and not a brand new one. There can also be other lands which are good and fat, it is in G-d’s hands to give us whatever land he wishes. There is nothing to stop him from doing so. As it says in the Midrash, “G-d says I could have created a new land for you”.

We see from here that we should not think that we can do any To’eboth (abominations) in the Land and it will tolerate it and not throw us out. Since we have seen that this land threw out its inhabitants before, we now know that we have to be extremely careful, in order to ensure that we will not be thrown out ourselves, Heaven forbid. We should not think that because the Land tolerated improper behavior in the past, for a long time, that we can do the same thing again.

This is in keeping with the example of a body which tolerated all kinds of inappropriate food for many years. Once, however, it became ill as a result of those foods, it can no longer be fed those inappropriate foods, because the body will get ill again very quickly.

G-d deliberately gave the Jewish people this Land which had already become ill and threw out its inhabitants, to let us know that once this happened, it will not tolerate abominations, even if only spread over a short time.

That is why the Passuk says

כָּל־הַמִּצְוָה אֲשֶׁר אָֽנֹכִי מְצַוְּךָ הַיּוֹם תִּשְׁמְרוּן לַֽעֲשׂוֹת לְמַעַן תִּֽחְיוּן

“All the commandments which I command you this day shall you take care to do, that you may live”, to tell us that we should not say that we have no need to be concerned if we transgress. The nations that were there before us, did all these abominations and lasted a long time. We do many commandments, so we need not be concerned if we transgress some of them.

וּבָאתֶם וִֽירִשְׁתֶּם אֶת־הָאָרֶץ

The Torah says, “You have come and inherited a Land”, from others. It is not a new land which is strong and never become sick. On the contrary, it came down with an illness and threw out the inhabitants once. Therefore, this time, you have to be careful from the beginning.

We must be fully aware that keeping hold of the Land is a big responsibility. It is not a foregone conclusion.

The following story, which is told in the name of Hakham Eliyahu Mani, ‘a”,h, illustrates the point. There were two young partners who were in business together. One sat in the store all day selling the goods, while the other was responsible for doing the accounts and purchasing merchandise. One day the one who sat in store all day announced to the other that he was getting engaged and invited him to his engagement celebration that evening. The other partner who was in charge of the accounts congratulated him, but said that he really needed them to sit together right away to look over the balance and the accounts.

The one who was getting engaged was confused as to why on this day of all days he wished to go over the accounts. He explained that he was very busy with the preparations and had to go purchase gifts for his fiancée and her family. His partner insisted, stating that it would not take too long.

When they went over the accounts, he suddenly realized that the business was not doing as well as he thought. All he saw every day, was the merchandise that he sold, but did not have a full comprehension of their expenses. He asked his partner why he had to do this on the very day when he is very busy. Additionally, this is a day of Simcha (happiness), and the partner got him depressed.

His partner explained that he did it on purpose. Had he thought that the business was doing well he would give no thought to what he was buying and would happily (and drastically) overspend. Now that he understood the situation, he would have to weigh each purchase carefully before deciding whether to buy or not it.

So too with the Land of Israel. G-d warns us beforehand of the situation. We should not feel when we go into the Land that we can do as we wish. We must not think that we have a credit card which allows us to do any transgression that we wish. We must know that there is no credit card because the Land of Israel is not able to extend credit.

By Rabbi Ya’aqob Menashe

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Rabbi Ya’aqob Menashe is a renowned author and lecturer, whose Shiurim continue to inspire thousands around the world. Many can be seen at www.NonstopTorah.com. His daily Torah Minutes are eagerly anticipated by thousands every morning. They can be seen at www.ATorahMinute.com. Rabbi Menashe is the spiritual leader of Midrash BEN ISH HAI. More information is available at the Midrash website, www. Midrash.org.