מצווה גוררת מצווה ועבירה גוררת עבירה, ששכר מצווה מצווה ושכר עבירה עבירה” (נפש החיים א, יב).
It is as the Sages have said (Pirke Avot 4.2), “A mitzvah brings another mitzvah and a sin brings another sin, for the reward for a mitzvah is a mitzvah, and the punishment for a sin is a sin” – R Eliezer Melamed, Peninei Halakhah
I am resuming my weekly erev Shabbat email after a 2-month hiatus and hope that you’ll once again welcome my parashah-related offerings in your inbox.
This week’s parashat hashavua begins with this report: Sarah, the matriarch of the Jewish people, has died.
וַיִּהְיוּ֙ חַיֵּ֣י שָׂרָ֔ה מֵאָ֥ה שָׁנָ֛ה וְעֶשְׂרִ֥ים שָׁנָ֖ה וְשֶׁ֣בַע שָׁנִ֑ים שְׁנֵ֖י חַיֵּ֥י שָׂרָֽה׃ וַתָּ֣מׇת שָׂרָ֗ה בְּקִרְיַ֥ת אַרְבַּ֛ע הִ֥וא חֶבְר֖וֹן בְּאֶ֣רֶץ כְּנָ֑עַן וַיָּבֹא֙ אַבְרָהָ֔ם לִסְפֹּ֥ד לְשָׂרָ֖ה וְלִבְכֹּתָֽהּ׃
Sarah’s lifetime amounted to one hundred and twenty-seven years. Sarah died in Kiryat-Arba, now Hebron, in the land of Canaan – Genesis 23.1
The fact that Sarah lived to the age of 127 according to the text has piqued the interest of many commentators on the text; they seek a deeper than surface meaning for the specificity of the number. 120 is the age that Moshe Rabbenu reached; should that be a comparison? Then there’s the 127th Psalm, which starts “if HaShem does not build the house, the builders labor in vain.” Commentary on her marriage?
Rabbi Akiba, once upon a time, found another way to drash this text. Joined in study one day with his community, he was seeking a way to “wake them up”, to change their mindset. Why? Because at the time, the story goes, it was very difficult for the Jewish people to get excited about doing mitzvot and good deeds. Their morale had been hollowed out. Oppressed by the Roman Empire, they were in despair:
“Many of the best of the people had been killed. Many more, having been persuaded by the idea of faith based upon reward and punishment, could not understand the logic behind the terrible suffering that had come upon them, nor could they see an end to it. Because their faith was based upon reward and punishment, it was waning.” (Yalkut Yehudah, Shemot 32.13)
Rabbi Akiba offered this thought out of left field:
“Why was Esther seen fit to reign over one hundred and twenty-seven provinces? The explanation is: Let Esther, who was a descendant of Sarah, who lived one hundred and twenty-seven years, come and reign over one hundred and twenty-seven provinces.” (Bereshit Rabbah 58.3)
How many generations are there between Sarah our Mother and her descendant, Esther, Queen of Persia? If the story of the Megillah is based upon any historical resonance at all, it could only be after the destruction of the First Jerusalem Temple in 586 BCE. Sarah’s lifetime is associated with the early Bronze Age (beginning around 3300 BCE).
That’s a long way downstream. In other words, Rabbi Akiba is saying that when you do something, don’t expect to experience the result – the “reward” for your effort – right away. Teachers, farmers and anyone else who through their work in the world plants a seed – real or metaphorical – has to be willing to believe in results that they may very well not see. You have to be willing to believe in a “downstream”, a future, or even just another place where you do not live, as a reality that is linked to you.
The horizon is only a few miles away, and no one can see further than the curve of the earth, even on a clear day. The world is bigger than our intelligence can grasp or our hearts can fathom. Where it may seem more hopeless than we would like to imagine, there may also be more reason for hope than we can possibly entertain at times like his, and, perhaps, ours.
The Hebrew term used for us when our name is mentioned after we’re dead, zikaron l’vrakha, “may the memory be a blessing” is linked to this knowledge: who we are and what we do resonates after we are no longer around. It’s not very satisfying, but our only other option, “seeing is believing,” is perilously close to giving up on the idea that we can make a difference at all. Seeing is an imperfect sense, anyway, and logic is not a sufficient option for those whose identity is rooted in Jewishness. Jewish meaning is built upon the idea that doing mitzvot matters, not only for the world around us but for our own inner sense of purpose. For whatever is downstream, in gratitude for the fact that we ourselves are downstream from someone else, who planted for us.
The challenge is to believe that what we do matters, even when we can discern no direct proof, or when it seems not likely to be enough, anyway. שכר מצוה מצוה – s’khar mitzvah mitzvah, “the reward of the mitzvah is the mitzvah (itself)”. In these difficult days, may you find the strength you need to keep the faith, and to continue to know that it does matter: the small things you do will make a difference.
Torah for the 21st Century by Rabbi Ariel Stone 