Rabbi Avi Weiss, Hebrew Institute of Riverdale
Good people are rewarded and evil people
are punished. So says this week's portion.
Is this really true? Aren't there countless examples of the good
who are punished and the evil who are rewarded?
And what of the maxim, "Do not serve the Master for a
reward, but with no reward in mind." Ethics 1:3.
A good approach to these questions is to imagine the reverse.
Imagine the good always being rewarded and the evil automatically
punished.
In such a world, of course, freedom of choice would be
non-existent. Everyone would give charity if the return would be
greater and no one would speak wrongfully if their tongues would
immediately cleave to their palates.
Bearing in mind that freedom of choice is central to being human,
it follows, that in a world of exact reward and punishment, our
very humanity would be challenged as we would be bereft of
volition.
But if there is no exact reward and punishment in this world, how
can one explain this week's portion?
It is here that one could suggest two types of reward and
punishment. One individual and the other collective.
On the individual level, as the Talmud states, there is no reward
for doing a mitzvah in this world-- that comes in the world
hereafter. ( Kiddushin 39b)
In this world, however, reward and punishment only operate on a
collective level. That is, when one does something positive, the
larger community benefits. And when doing something negative, the
community suffers.
No wonder then, when reward and punishment is discussed in this
week's portion, it is always in the plural. Indeed, the second
portion of the Shema recited morning and night, only speaks of
reward and punishment in the plural. In fact, those times in the
Torah where reward and punishment are in the singular, such as
"Honor your father and mother that your days may be
long." (Exodus 20:12) are understood to refer to a length of
time in the world to come.
Thus our questions have been answered. The good can suffer in
this world as there is no exact reward and punishment here for
individuals, and, indeed, when doing the right thing, we do so
for the noblest of reasons, to benefit the community.
All this is a very un-American idea. Here the key pronoun is
"I" with the "we" subsumed beneath the
"I" domain.
Not so in Judaism. Where the key pronoun is "we." Not
that the "I" isn't important--but the "I" is
secondary to the "we."
Society predominates.
AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM RABBI AVI WEISS
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