How to double the reward for commandments

Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto’s talks are known throughout the Jewish world. They combine chassidic teachings and philosophy, along with tips for a better life. We have collected pearls from his teachings that are relevant to our daily lives. This week he comments on the Torah section of  Toldot.

"And now, my son, listen to my voice, to what I am about to command you." (Genesis 27:8).

In our Torah section we come to the astonishing scene where our matriarch Rebecca calls aside Jacob and commands him to bring a tasty dish of meat to his father Issac, so Isaac will bless him instead of Esau. Rebecca acts with alacrity and purpose so that Jacob will receive the blessings.

The blessing "May the Lord give you the dew of heaven and the fat of the earth and an abundance of grain and wine" are essential for the flourishing of the Jewish people. They are physical blessings that also contain great spiritual blessings. But why did these wonderful blessings had to come about in such an underhanded way, by the unexpected intervention of our matriarch Rebecca? Why weren’t these blessings given to Jacob in a direct way?

Perhaps it is possible to see a deep meaning in this. Our holy sages in the tractate of Kiddushin (31a) teach that there are two types of commandments - one which a person is commanded to do it and he does it, and one that he is not commanded to do but nevertheless does it. The difference between them is that when a person is commanded to fulfill a commandment, the evil inclination mounts an all out war against him to prevent the person from fulfilling the commandment he has to do. It exerts far less effort for a commandment that the person doesn’t have to do. Our sages have also stated that a commandment which a person doesn’t have to do but does anyway will confer on him a reward in This World too, whereas a commandment he was commanded to fulfill has no reward in This World but only in the Hereafter.

One of the most important commandments in the Torah is the commandment to be fruitful and multiply, upon which the Jewish nation’s existence depends. Although the Shulchan Aruch (Even HaEzer 1:13) rules that this commandment devolves only upon men and not upon women, this is actually advantageous for women. Since it is impossible to have children without the paramount participation of women, women will receive a double reward for it - in This World as well as the Hereafter.

The Gemara brings (Baba Metzia 59a): “Rabbi Chelbo said: A man should always be careful to show respect to his wife, for any blessing in a man's home is due to his wife, as the verse says: "And he benefitted Abram for her sake." The Torah commands a man to respect his wife because she is the one who brings blessing into the home. This is due to her receiving a reward in This World for the commandments which she wasn’t commanded to keep but nevertheless does.

A person needs both - being commanded to keep a commandment and doing it, and not being commanded to fulfill a commandment but doing it anyway. The father instills in the child the practice of being commanded to fulfill a commandment and doing it, while the mother represents keeping a commandment even when one doesn’t have to, which will bring a person a reward in This World as well.

Our sages tell us on the verse, "Listen, my son, to the chastisement of your father, and do not forsake the teaching of your mother" (Proverbs 1:8). "Listen, my son, to the chastisement of your father" - to the commandments that a person is commanded to fulfill, "and do not forsake the teaching of your mother" - the commandments that he is not commanded to fulfill but does anyway.

When our patriarch Jacob came to receive the blessings from his father Isaac, Isaac smelled him and said, "See, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that God has blessed." Rashi explains, "‘The smell of the field’ - this refers to an apple orchard." Issac specifically used the analogy of an apple orchard because of the unique way it grows. All other fruits first produce the leaves that will protect the fruit, and only afterward does the fruit develop. But since the apple tree wants to immediately do the Almighty’s will, it does not wait for leaves to protect the fruit but the fruit begins to develop even before the leaves. The apple tree symbolizes people who want to do the Almighty’s will without waiting to hear what reward awaits them.

Similarly, at Mt. Sinai the Israelites said, "We will do and hear" - first we are ready to do and then we will hear what to do. This is the mindset of "apple tree" people who stand ready to keep commandments without hearing what their reward will be for the commandments they kept. 

The Israelites in Egypt were compared to apples: "Under the apple tree I aroused you; there your mother was in travail with you; there she that bore you was in travail." (Song of Songs 8:5). The Egyptians decreed that "every male child that is born shall be cast in the river" (Exodus 1:22), but the Israelite women would give birth with great self sacrifice without making any calculations as to what would happen to the children. Like the apple tree that brings out its fruit without leaves to protect it and without thinking what will be. 

That's why Isaac said to Jacob, I smell a fragrance of apples in you - you are a person who keeps commandments without thinking about if the circumstances are right, like an apple tree.

We can now understand why the Almighty wanted Jacob our father to receive these world transforming blessings through the agency of his mother. When he would fulfill her request, it would enable him to receive a reward in This World in addition to the reward in the Next World. Therefore, a person who wants to be rewarded with blessing and success in This World in addition to the Hereafter, should fulfill a commandment he isn’t required to keep. Our matriarch Rebecca made sure that Jacob would take the blessings with the status of one who is not commanded so he would receive a reward in both This World and the Hereafter.

This article was written in cooperation with Shuva Israel