D’var Torah for Friday, August 4, 2023
So, I’m no English major; however, I am somewhat familiar with the language. For example, I know that the word “conditional” means, among other things – IF what’s described in one part of a sentence is true, THEN what’s described in another part of the sentence COULD also be true – the eventual outcome is dependent on a particular “condition” being true. That other part of the sentence doesn’t necessarily have to be true, but it needs the first part of the sentence to be true, in order for it to be true as well. Confused…? You ain’t seen nothing yet…
Causation is similar, grammatically, yet very different. When a statement deals with “cause and effect,” that means that, WHEN the first part of a sentence is true, the next part of the sentence will also become true, just because it is an “effect” of the “cause” – one thing happens (and must happen) precisely because it is an effect of the first thing happening. Allow me to clean things up a bit.
This week’s Torah Portion – Eikev – begins with one of my favorite lines in the Tanakh: “If you do obey these rules and observe them carefully, your God will maintain faithfully for you the covenant made on oath with your fathers: God will favor you and bless you and multiply you…” The reason why this line is one of my favorites is because of the discussion that generally ensues when people disagree as to whether this statement indicates condition or causation.
Imagine a parent says to their child, “If you break curfew, you will be grounded.” If the child then stays out past curfew, the “grounding” doesn’t just happen automatically…the parent must go ahead and either ground the child or not. If the parent does ground the child, that is an “action” that the parent actively takes toward the child. In effect, the parent is actively deciding to take action and punish the child, in response to the child staying out after curfew.
Imagine, now, that a parent says to a toddler, “If you touch the hot stove, you’ll get burned.” “Getting burned” is not a “punishment” – it’s not something that the parent either does to the child or “arranges to have happen” to the childe; rather, it is quite literally a consequence that results from having touched a hot stove. No one is punishing the toddler; it’s just what touching a hot stove causes to happen. Back to our Torah verse…
Some believe that “If you obey these rules…” is causal. In other words, if we do all that God commands, it naturally follows that our lives will be full and rich and good – being blessed with a good life is a natural consequence flowing from having followed God’s commandments.
Some believe that “If you obey these rules…” is conditional. In other words, if we do all that God commands then, if God so chooses, God may (will?) grant us good lives. This perspective, of course, leads beautifully into a discussion about reward and punishment – certainly relevant, yet we’ll wait to have that discussion at another time – or, perhaps, not…
How do you read that verse? CAUSAL – fulfilling God’s commandments results directly in our being granted enriched, fulfilling lives, just like touching a hot stove results directly in our being burned, OR… CONDITIONAL – God either “rewards” or “punishes” us for either fulfilling God’s commandments or not. I would love to hear your thoughts…
Shabbat Shalom,Rabbi Eric J. Lazar