In Parshat Ekev, Devarim 11:13-22 we read the words that are
very familiar to us from the second paragraph of the Shma prayer (Vehaya im
Shamoah…).
The paragraph begins with the words: “It will be that if you
listen to My commandments that I command you today, to love HaShem your God and
to serve Him with all of your heart and with all your soul, then I shall
provide rain for your Land in its proper time, the early and late rains, that
you may gather in your grain, your wine and your oil.”
In Masechet Brachot 35b, the question is asked why the Torah
needs to state the words “and you will gather in your grain.”
Rabbi Yishmael explains that since it says in the book of
Yehoshua 1:8, “This book of the Torah shall not depart from your mouth”, some
may think that one should only study Torah and not go out to work. Therefore,
the Torah had to state: “you shall gather in your grain” to mean that an
individual has an obligation to find a means of earning a livelihood in
addition to their time set aside for Torah study. He should not devote himself
so completely to Torah study that he must rely on Divine intervention to
support him miraculously. Rather he should study Torah as much as possible but
set aside a portion of his time to be able to support himself and his family.
In Yalkut M’Am Loez, The Midrash anthology, we learn that this
philosophy follows the teaching from our Rabbis in Pirkei Avot 2:2: “Any Torah
that is not accompanied by a livelihood will become void.” If one has no way to
support himself, he will eventually have to resort to means which will
completely remove him from the study of Torah in order to sustain himself.
Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai points out in the same Gemara that
if we are busy throughout the year with agricultural work such as plowing,
sowing, harvesting, threshing and winnowing then we will never have time to
study Torah. He therefore concludes that if B’nai Yisrael do the will of God,
then their work will be done by others as it says in Yishayahu 61:5 “Strangers
will arise and shepherd your flocks.” At that point, B’nai Yisrael can fully
focus on Torah study. However, at a time that B’nail Yisrael do not fulfill the
will of God, they will have to do their own work and not only that, they will
have to work for others as it says in Devarim 28:48 “and you will serve your
enemies.”
We see from here that it is necessary to learn a trade which
we can balance with Torah study and try to fulfill as many mitzvot as possible
so that we can eventually reach the ideal and be blessed with others
“shepherding our flocks” so that we will have more time to devote to Torah
study.
