Dvar Torah for Parshat V'Etchanan

Based on Likutey Moharan II, #78

"V'Etchanan - (And I pleaded) with God at that time, saying."
(Deuteronomy 3:23)

V'Etchanan - Moshe pleaded with God for a gift: the privilege of entering the Holy Land. Rashi explains that even though tzaddikim (saints) have great merit, nonetheless, when they plead to God for something, they do not rely upon their merits. Rather, they ask that God grant their request solely as a gift.

Throughout the corpus of our sacred literature - Talmud, Midrash, Zohar - we find that God's purpose in creating the world, as well as man's need to pass through it, is that man should earn the reward he will enjoy in the World to Come rather than have it given to him as a "free meal," undeserved. Why is it then, that tzaddikim ask God for a "gift" and do not rely upon their merits?

The Midrash tells us that God has His own personal treasury of unearned gifts (Shemos Rabbah 45:6). Rebbe Nachman asks, "For whom is this treasury? It cannot be for the tzaddikim because they have no need for it; they have their own merits. The wicked cannot be allowed to draw reward from this treasury, for if so, they, would be rewarded for their evil deeds, just as the righteous are rewarded for their good deeds. Where is the justice in that? So for whom is this treasury!?"

Rebbe Nachman answers that this treasury of unearned gifts is for the tzaddik, not for his personal needs, but to share with all the ordinary people who want to be attached to a Torah way of life. These good people are overwhelmed, either by their material necessities or their inability to comprehend and fulfill the Torah. The tzaddik shares this treasury with them as well as with those even further removed from a Torah way of life. Not only Jews, but even non-Jews who may have no connection whatsoever with the Torah benefit from the gifts of this treasury. How can these gifts be shared?

The Rebbe explains that God used the Torah as the blueprint to create the world (Bereishis Rabbah 1:1). Thus, the power of Torah is and was present in the world from its inception. This Torah is the hidden Torah, the mysteries of Torah. It was and is this Torah which sustained the world even before the revelation at Sinai. The Talmud teaches that the world is sustained only because of the Torah (Shabbat 88a). How did the world survive prior to the Torah's being given at Sinai? How was the nourishing power of the Torah fed to the world during that period?

Elsewhere, the Talmud teaches that prior to the Revelation at Sinai God sustained the world through His chesed (loving kindness; Pesachim 118a). Thus, contained within that chesed of God is the hidden Torah which sustains the world. This chesed is God's Treasury of Unearned Gifts.

A tzaddik is one who sacrifices himself for the benefit of the Jewish people, of mankind, of the entire world and indeed, of all of Creation. The tzaddik seeks a gift from this Treasury, from God's chesed that sustains the world, even when we are distant from Torah and from God Himself. The tzaddik then uses this gift to share his appreciation of God with others and to instill in them the realization that God is Omnipresent. An ordinary person's ability to search for this Treasury, for this Hidden Torah, is limited. Therefore, the tzaddik, who has merited this Torah, shares his appreciation of God and His hidden Torah with mankind, through the Treasury of Unearned Gifts. May we be ever worthy of putting these gifts to good use.

agutn Shabbos!
Shabbat Shalom!