Material and Spiritual Life

And it shall come to pass, as the consequence of your hearing these ordinances, and carefully carrying them out, that the Lord your God will keep the covenant and the love with you that He swore to your fathers, and He will love you, and bless you and multiply you, and bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your soil, your corn, your wine and oil, and increase of your cattle and the riches of your sheep, in the Land which He swore unto your fathers to give you.                                              Deuteronomy 7:12-13

            My father noted that our verses are God’s explicit promise that as long as we observe His commandments and obey the laws of the Torah, He will keep the covenant He made with the people of Israel. The result will be great material reward. In truth, we should observe God’s law without expecting any reward. The greatest reward may be in the fact that we observe His law, are His servants and carry His flag. Nevertheless, God promises Israel great reward, not only spiritual, but also tangible reward for fulfillment of mitzvot.

            The Torah approach is that everything God created is for man’s benefit and pleasure. However, we must be aware that our material blessings come from the Almighty. Without Divine blessing, man’s efforts alone are insufficient, true blessing comes from the combination of man’s efforts and Providence, which is reflected in the Halachic requirement to recite a blessing before eating anything.

            While, indeed, man is a physical being, he possesses within himself the spirit of Godliness, having been sanctified by the Almighty Himself. Man realizes his personal sanctity to the extent that he fulfils his obligations to God and to fellow – men. Torah does not see sanctity as deriving from performance of miracles, but through observance of the Divine will. Indeed, fulfilling one’s duties to God and to man on a daily basis is much harder than performing a miracle once or twice in a lifetime.

            The Torah teaches that material and spiritual life go together and are interdependent. Spiritual life does not exist in a vacuum, detached from society, but necessarily and exclusively within society. A holy person is not a hermit who withdraws from society, but rather one who works for and within his society, to influence, improve and elevate his society.