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THIS WEEK'S PARASHAH INCLUDES the following verse: "And now Israel, what does the LORD your God ask from you but only to fear (לְיִרְאָה) the LORD your God, to walk (לָלֶכֶת) in all His ways, to love (לְאַהֲבָה) Him, and to serve (לַעֲבד) the LORD your God with all your heart and all your soul?" (Deut. 10:12).
Traditional Judaism believes in personal responsibility as expressed through the exercise of the human will. This is summarized in the well-known maxim of the Talmud: "All is in the hands of God except the fear of heaven" (Berachot 33b; Niddah 16b). In his commentary on the verse quoted above, Rashi noted that when God asked Israel "only to fear" Him, this implied that He voluntarily withdrew His sovereign control over human beings so that no one would be overwhelmed or forced into serving Him. God gives to each soul the path of goodness (that leads to blessing) and the path of wickedness (that leads to curse). Paradoxically, we are "forced" to freely choose whether to live as a tzaddik (righteous person of faith) or as a rasha (idolatrous person of unbelief) -- and we cannot not choose! Ultimately, the choice whether or not to turn to God is the only real one we have, since it determines everything else we see and do...
It is interesting to note that the sages of the Tosafot (i.e., the commentary found on the outer margin and opposite Rashi's notes in the Talmud) quote a different statement regarding this verse: "All is in the hands of Heaven except for thorns (tzinim) and snares (pachim)." This apparently comes from the Book of Proverbs: "Thorns (צִנִּים) and snares (פַּחִים) are in the path of the perverse; (but) he who guards his soul will distance himself from them" (Proverbs 22:5).
R' Yaakov said, "This world is like a corridor before the World to Come; prepare yourself in the corridor, that you may enter into the hall" (Pirke Avot 4:21). God sets "thorns and snares" within the "corridor" here to test us in our way. If we are perverse, we will find ourselves injured and stuck through various circumstances of our own making. The one who "guards his soul," however, will steer clear of these things and therefore be spared much tzuris and heartache. This is consonant with the teaching of the New Testament: "Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap" (Gal. 6:7). Our moral choices do indeed matter and affect our experience of life. Some things, such as our DNA, our intelligence, the conditions that surround us in history, and so on, are indeed beyond our control, but we all nontheless face "thorns and snares" to circumnavigate if we are to turn away from perversity and guard our souls, as the Proverb instructs.
The ultimate aim of the various "thorns and snares" of life, then, is to "wake us from our slumbers" to reveal the way of life... As C.S. Lewis once said, "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world."
Keep pressing on, chaverim! God in His infinite wisdom uses troubles and brokenness in our lives so that we can make the only choice that really matters: to turn to Him for healing.
Note: For more about this subject, please see "Paradox and Presence."
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