Tales for the Shabbos Table

Each word and idea in the Torah is eternal. But it seems that the opening sentence of our section is an exception. It talks about Jewish unity.

"You are standing today, ALL OF YOU, before HaShem your G-d."

One of the biggest problems of the Jewish people is their lack of unity. Because of it the Temple was destroyed and we have been in torturous exile for some 2,000 years! But nevertheless it seems to get worse as time goes on. If so, what is G-d trying to tell us with this sentence? It seems to be impossible that the Jews will ever be standing ALL TOGETHER.

To understand this here is a story.

Rabbi Chiam Chaikel Miltzki was crippled, and the doctors were considering amputating one of his legs, maybe even both. Despite his disability and constant pain he was the Dean of Yeshiva Chai Olom in Jerusalem and spent most of the day teaching, learning...and suffering.

But no one knew the cause of his illness; he never spoke about it, until one awful evening...at the wedding of his first son.

The wedding hall was filled with joyous music and laughter when suddenly someone pounded on the table and announced that some of the honorable rabbis present would be invited to say a few words. And his turn came.

It was impossible for him to stand and his voice was weak but he waited for complete silence and then began.

"Some fifty years ago when I was about fifteen I learned in a small yeshiva of thirty boys in the city of Stotchin.

"It so happened that there was this drunk called Itche that used the place as a sort of hotel. He would sleep for a while, then he would wake up, have another few drinks and go back to sleep again. We called him Itche der Shikker (Issac the Drunk) but he was a quiet fellow, and made no trouble so we paid him almost no attention.

"Then one cold rainy night someone pounded on the door a few times and before we could get up to answer he came bursting in. He was drenched, covered with mud from head to toe, and was wailing about how his wagon had just overturned and was killing his horse. He begged us to stop learning and help him overturn the carriage before the horse died.

"But after a lively discussion we decided that learning Torah was more important and we announced that we weren't leaving. The wagon driver whimpered and moaned but finally realized he had no choice and he left to look elsewhere.

"No sooner had he closed the door behind him then Itche the drunk suddenly sat up on his bench, looked as us menacingly and said in a surprisingly sober voice, "You'd better go and help him or none of you will be able to walk again."

"Of course, besides making a few jokes at his expense, we paid no attention told him to shut up and go back to sleep.

"But a half hour later the wagon driver returned, almost insane with weeping and begging and this time we decided to go have a look. But when we got there it was too late, the horse had already died.

"The next day Itche the drunk came up to me privately with a seemingly crazy and totally unrelated request. He told me he was going to die that evening, and that I should come to his house and be there with him in his last moments.

"I told him I thought he was crazy but for some strange reason I decided to go. In any case I had a lot of material to go over in the Talmud and what difference did it make where I learned?

"Late that night I found my way to his house. It was no more than a one room hovel and when I entered I saw he was already sleeping on some boards in the middle of the room. So I sat for an hour or two learning Talmud by the light of a candle until I decided I had enough and got up to leave.

"But suddenly he opened his eyes, looked at me and said that at exactly four A.M. he would die and afterward he wanted me to ask the burial society to bury him in the plot next to the Gaon... (the name was not given in the story).

I replied incredulously, "Itche, you don't even put on Tefillin! How will they ever agree to bury you in such a prestigious place?"

"He just pointed to a box in the corner and said that in that box are his Tefillin and some of his writings and that he was sure that when the members
of the burial society saw them they would agree to bury him there.

"Sure enough, it was just as he said; at exactly four A.M. he returned his soul to its creator and when the burial society saw his things they were, to say the least, very surprised and impressed.

"And they were even more surprised to find that there was an empty burial plot in the exact place he had mentioned, although they had passed that area a hundred times and were certain that it was not available. Itche was a hidden Tzadik!"

At this point Rabbi Miltzki broke down crying, apologized to the crowd, saying he didn't know why he told the story, and the wedding was suddenly transformed from joy to mourning.

But, he was lucky he told the story. It just so happened that a Chabad Chassid, Rabbi Leib Friedman was in the crowd that night and when he came home from the wedding he wrote a letter to the Rebbe about what he had
heard.

Two weeks later he received an answer!

The Rebbe wrote that Rabbi Miltzki should take upon himself to learn "Chitas" daily: [Namely the daily portions of Chumash, Tanya and T'hillim as established by the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe (Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Shneerson)]. and encourage others to do as well.

The Rebbe promised that if he does so, the attachment to the Previous Lubavitcher Rebbe will stand him on his feet.

Without hesitation Rabbi Miltzki began learning and spreading the idea to others as well. Within several months he was standing and a year later he was walking.

This answers our question.

True, the Jews are divided. But that is only externally'; on the 'outside' each has a different 'face' and personality. Like the boys versus the wagon driver in our story.

But if we follow what it says at the end of the sentence:

"before (which also means 'inside of') HaShem your G-d"

and concentrate on the 'INSIDE' i.e. on HaShem our G-d and how He creates us, enlivens us, and chose us ... then we will have true unity.

This is the job of these great Jewish leaders whose books the Rebbe chose to learn daily: Moses who gave us the Chumash, Dovid who wrote T'hillim and the Baal Shem Tov whose ideas are explained in the Tanya.

And uniquely these three are the forerunners of Moshiach who will the greatest leader of all time:

Moses and Dovid are each called 'First Redeemer' (Moshiach will be the last) and the Baal Shem Tov began the 'Teachings of Moshiach' (Chassidut).

And, as the Lubavitcher Rebbe said many times; Moshiach is already here! All we have to do is open our eyes. Soon we will all be 'standing' and even 'walking' upright to the Holy Land with....
Moshiach NOW!!

Rabbi Tuvia Bolton Yeshiva Ohr Tmimim
Kfar Chabad, Israel

Torah Online Website: http://www.ohrtmimim.org/torah

Tales for the Shabbos Table

This week's double section is always read just before Rosh HaShanna.

It contains the last commandment in the Torah; that every Jew must write, or at least participate in writing, a Sefer Torah (Torah Scroll).

The law is that if a Sefer Torah is missing even one letter it is disqualified even if it is a letter of no practical importance whatsoever.

This is a very strange law because a Sefer Torah can take over a year to write and costs tens of thousand's of dollars. Why would one letter render it unusable, and what connetion has this to Rosh HaShanna?

Perhaps these two stories will help us to understand.

When Rabbi Yosef Weinberg was younger he was a very active emissary of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. An excellent speaker, he was often invited to speak in public and in fact has to this day a very popular radio program.

Once he was invited to speak at a large banquet made by a prestigious Jewish social group in honor of their purchase of a new Sefer Torah.

The last letters of the Sefer were written with great ceremony, it was then carried through the streets to the Synagogue amidst music and rejoicing and afterwards at the festive banquet Rabbi Weinberg spoke.

His words made a deep impression on the hundreds of people present and the next morning he flew back to his home in the Chabad community of Crown Hights in Brooklyn New York.

As soon as he arrived he entered the Lubavitcher Rebbe's headquarters on 770 Eastern Parkway, sought the Rebbe's secretary Rabbi Hodakov, and reported to him every detail of the previous night so that he could relate it all to the Rebbe.

Rabbi Weinberg reported that in his speech he likened the entire Jewish people to one Torah Scroll. Just as in a Sefer Torah if one letter is erased the entire Scroll is disqualified until fixed, so every Jew is essential to the Jewish people as a whole. If one Jew leaves Judaism or stops his observance of the Torah then it is as though a 'letter' has been erased and the entire Jewish people suffer.

The next day Rabbi Hodakov called Rabbi Weinberg and asked him if he could come to his office.

"I told the Rebbe about the success of your speech and he was very pleased. But he said you could have picked a better metaphor.

"A Jew can never be erased no matter what he has done. Rather you
should have likened a wayward Jew to a letter that is covered with dust or dirt. In such a case the Torah is not disqualified, but you must stop reading, clean off the dirt and see that the letter is really whole before you can begin reading again."

The second story occurred some hundred and fifty years earlier in Russia.

The first Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi author of 'Tanya' personally wrote his own Sefer Torah. The holiness of the Rebbe was literally incomparable and this Torah that he wrote was, needless to say, precious beyond value.

After he passed away in 1813 the Sefer Torah automatically passed into the hands of his son and successor Rabbi DovBer.

And when Rebbe DovBer passed away some fourteen years later and was buried in the city of Niajin the Scroll was kept in the Synagogue near his burial place to be read from regularly.

It so happened that one year a fire broke out in the town which spread quickly devouring home after home until it reached the synagogue.

Everyone else was so occupied helping others or trying to save his own property that no one thought of the Synagogue except for Rav Menachem.

Rabbi Menacham Nachum, one of the sons of the second Lubavitcher Rebbe lived there also, but as soon as he heard of the danger he ran with all his might to the Synagogue; he had to save the Sefer Torah at all cost!

When he reached the Synagogue flames were already licking the outside walls. He was alone; no one was there to help him, without hesitating he dashed in.

The room was filled with smoke and it wasn't easy to breath or to keep his eyes open but he ran toward the ark and then suddenly stopped in his tracks.. he had forgotten the key to the ark at home!

To run back home was out of the question. Flames were already shooting under the walls and in a few minutes the whole place would be an inferno. But there was no chance that the ark would be open, he had the only keys and the doors were always firmly locked.

The room was getting hot. He made a move toward the ark, hoping against all odds that.... when suddenly in the thickening smoke he saw a manstanding before him, back to him opening the ark door!

Where did he come from? How did he get in?

The smoke and heat were getting unbearable. The man removed the Sefer Torah turned around and held it out to Rav Menachem.

It was none other than the holy Rabbi Shneur Zalman, his grandfather who had departed this world over twenty years earlier!!

Rav Menachem took the Scroll, took a few steps backward unable to remove his eyes from the Rebbe's radiant face, then turned and ran for his life, exiting the building miraculously instants before it burst into flames.

These two stories really have the same lesson: a Jew can never be'erased'; neither spiritually (as the Rebbe insisted in the first story) or even hysically (as Rebbe Shneur Zalman, who is an example of a perfect Jew, showed in the second).

These are two foundations of Judaism: 1) Moshiach and 2) Raising of the Dead. (The last two of Maimonides 13 principles)

1) Moshiach will bring all the Jews back to their Jewish awareness because spiritually they were always complete (only lacking a bit of cleaning).

2) The physical bodies will return to life because the Jewish bodies were always really complete (only appearing to be dead).

The power for this is the Torah....the complete Torah (therefore every letter has to be present) which is called the Tree of Life (Prov. 3:18) and power (Psalms 29:11). Therefore when the Torah was given, death ceased and the Jews were to live eternally (had they not sinned with the golden calf).

This is also the connection to Rosh HaShanna. In the prayers of this day we do not request a place in heaven, rather we request and plead that G-d reveal Himself in the world "That every creation should know You" That You should be a King over the world etc.

In other words we are requesting Moshiach and the Raising of the dead...for ONLY then will these prayers be answered.

As we say in the 'Alenu' prayer: On that day HaShem will be ONE and His name will be ONE.

Have a good sweet year with Moshiach NOW!!

Rabbi Tuvia Bolton
Yeshiva Ohr Tmimim
Kfar Chabad Israel

Torah Online Site: http://www.ohrtmimim.org/torah

Tales for the Shabbos Table

This week's section begins with Moshe declaring to the Jewish people:

"You are standing (Nitzavim), all of you today, in front of G-d" etc.

Rashi says that the word "Standing" means the Jews will "firmly" exist forever, and "Today" means not just back then when Moshe said it, but even now.

Later on in the section, Moshe makes a very amazing prophesy.

"G-d will return all your exiles...and gather you from all the nations that G-d spread you out there." (Obviously referring to after the destruction of the second Temple, which was the only time the Jews were spread among many nations). "Even if you are spread to the ends of the Heavens, from there I will gather you".

Does this have a connection to the beginning of the section? If so why
has this not yet been fulfilled? And why does it say to the ends of the HEAVENS?

Here are two stories that I hope will help explain.

It was the day before the Jewish holiday of Rosh HaShanna in the town of Lubavitch, Russia, and Fival was going insane with worry.

His debts had reached unbearable proportions, and his lone asset; his hotel, hadn't had a guest for almost a half a year. The night before, his tormented soul didn't let him sleep. And now, at the crack of dawn, he was already wandering the deserted streets of Lubavitch in aimless gloom like a madman .

Suddenly he heard a voice call out to him from on high.

"Fival, what is wrong? What brings you here?"

Startled, Fival looked up to see that it was none other than the Rebbe Maharash (the fourth Rebbe of Chabad. Called the MaHaRaSh meaning "our teacher the Rav Shmuel", because the Chassidim never called the Rebbe by his first name). He was standing on the second floor balcony of his home looking down at him like a king, but with the eyes of a good
friend, waiting for him to answer.

Fival was terribly embarrassed to have stumbled into the Rebbe's yard, and had an urge to just run away, but he couldn't hold back his sorrow.

"Aaai, Rebbe, what will become of me, oy Rebbe! I have so many debts I'm going crazy! REBBE HELP!!"

"But what about your hotel?" Asked the Rebbe

Poor simple Fival was trying to hold back the tears as he just waived his hand and shook his head blurting out, "No good!".

The Rebbe became silent for a moment and then spoke in a very quiet voice, but Fival heard every word clearly.

"Fival, I see a lot of people coming to your inn for the Holiday. It's still early in the day; you still have a lot of time. Prepare for at least one hundred guests."

Simple Fival did not believe his ears. "One hundred, Rebbe? OOOH! Thank you Rebbe, thank you!!!"

He stood for a moment as though putting himself in gear, then yelled out another few "Thanks" to the Rebbe and ran out of the yard stumbling over his feet as he went. He went directly to the butcher shop and from there to all the other food stores.

Somehow he convinced each storeowner to just give him another chance, and an hour later returned home laden with parcels. He woke his wife, told her the good news, ran outside and hired a few of the locals to help with the preparations, and after several hours of joyous hard work everything was prepared for the onslaught of guests.

Ahhh! What a pleasure it was to see all the steaming pots and pans that filled his small kitchen, each one filled with a nice potential profit. And any second now the guests would be arriving.

But they didn't. It was already five in the afternoon. In two hours the holiday would begin and there was still no sign of any guests.

"Don't worry Fival! You always worry." his wife chided him. "Have faith in HaShem".

But at six she began to worry also, and at six thirty they were both in a panic. Fival ran in and out of his house, first looking up and down theroad in both directions for guests, and then back inside to check the pots

"Are you sure you heard the Rebbe correctly?" His wife began nagging him. "Are you sure the you really saw the Rebbe? What will we do with all this food? We have nowhere to put it all, it will spoil, Fival. Fival why aren't you answering me!!? It's a quarter to seven!!" But Fival was just sitting with his head in his hands.

Suddenly, ten minutes before the holiday the door burst open and several Jews frantically rushed in shouting, "Have you got a place for us to sleep!!?"

Fival took his head out of his hands, half-heartedly looked at them and asked. "How many are you""

"About three hundred all together! We were on our way to Vitebsk but we took a wrong turn. Do you have a place?"

It seems that his wife had been yelling at him at such volume that neither of them noticed the multitude of wagons that had arrived.

The guests had to settle for cramped rooms and smaller portions of food, but miraculously everyone was tremendously satisfied, and after the holiday they paid Fival royally for his hospitality.

Fival went to the Rebbe to thank him. He had to wait a few days to get an appointment, but when he finally did, he couldn't help asking the Rebbe why he didn't just tell him that the guests would arrive so late and save him the tension and aggravation.

"I was looking from very high" (He knew that Fival would think he was referring to his second-floor balcony) explained the Rebbe. "From there even large distances seem very small".

The second story is about a hippy called Sam. Sam was brought up in a typical American non-observant Jewish family, and when he entered
University, he quickly threw off the little Jewish identity he had.

"Religion is restrictive, G-d is nature, The Torah is unreal, pleasure is everything" were his mottos.

But it wasn't long before he was tired of drugs and wild parties, and was drawn to more lasting, "spiritual" pleasures. He joined a cult that was a mixture of nature worship and pure idolatry, and felt right at home.

His parents had long ago given up on him, and didn't even know where he was. And he meanwhile became progressively more involved in his new cult, that slowly revealed itself to be a branch of a very organized
missionary movement following the Gospels.

The big day was arriving. Sam would be initiated into the inner-circle of believers. But part of the ritual involved building a large fire on an altar. This extraordinary experience was to save his Jewish life.

As he was searching through the forest for twigs and fuel for his "magic" fire, he noticed an old page from a newspaper entangled in some weeds. A bit surprised to see such a thing in the middle of the forest, he added it to his bundle, but as he did, he noticed a picture of a white bearded rabbi with interesting eyes.

He didn't pay it much attention, but when he finally got back to the altar and unpacked his bundle he noticed it again. This time he looked at it for a second, again noticing those eyes, and then stuffed it into the wood on the altar and struck the match.

But, although it seemed to be a calm day, a wind blew the match out, and then the second. "Strange" he thought to himself as he tried to figure where to stand, to block the wind from blowing out the next match.

He then saw the picture again peeking out from between the pieces of wood. He plucked it out of the woodpile, stuffed it in his pocket, told his peers that he was going into the woods to collect more fuel, and when he was sufficiently far from the others, took out the picture and read the caption.

"A New Year's Message from the Lubavitcher Rebbe".

Those eyes seemed to be begging him to stop and think before going too far.

He stood in the woods just staring at the picture for a few minutes. Then turned and walked silently back to town.

A few months later he was walking down a street on the campus, and saw the same picture on the front of a building called "Chabad House". It wasn't long before he was learning Torah with Rabbi Deren - the Chabad House manager on Campus. A few months later decided to live like a Jew.

This answers our questions: True, Moshe prophesized the gathering of the exiles, but he did it from very "high up". From there even great distances seem close.

But this is where we come in; our job is to be firm "STANDING" and bring this revelation "TODAY". In other words, do ALL WE CAN, even one more good deed TO BRING MOSHIACH NOW!

But we aren't alone; we have the help of the Rebbe and of all the Tzadikim of all the generations.

There is another explanation of "Today"; it means Rosh HaShanna.

May we all firmly stand together this Rosh HaShanna and cry out with all our hearts and souls:

G-d, Please start ruling the world in a revealed way! Send the Moshiach NOW!!

Rabbi Tuvia Bolton
Yeshiva Ohr Tmimim
Kfar Chabad Israel

There are millions of Jews throughout the world that cannot.

They never heard the Shofar in their lives. In fact they do not know that
they are Jewish … or they simply don’t care.

But the Baal Shem Tov taught in a parable that every Jew, without exception, feels the same strange awakening when he hears the Shofar, (he just has to know that it is something Jewish).

Here is the Baal Shem’s parable:

Once there was a great king that had a mischievous ten-year-old son.

The young price had requested from his father several times to let him play
with the town children outside of the castle wall but his father refused
each time saying, ‘Soon you will be King, and a King must be different’.

But eventually the son decided that he was bored and he planned an escape.
So one day when no one was looking, he changed his royal garments for some old clothes, hid himself under some baskets in the back of a wagon that was about to leave the palace, and in minutes he was outside, free!

It was so simple! He was really free! At the first opportunity he jumped out of the wagon, and was on the way to begin a new life, playing with other children and having fun.

It wasn’t long, only a few days, until he ran out of money, but he was
enjoying himself and he didn’t want to stop. So he learned how to beg and
was soon living each day as it came, constantly on the move so he wouldn't get caught and brought back to the Castle.

He wandered from city to city and country to country. The days turned into weeks and the weeks to months and before he knew it, ten years had passed and he had become a strong young man. But he hardly looked like the prince he really was, in fact he barely looked human.

His ragged clothes, long dirty hair and fingernails and his strange stare
made him look like some wild animal. He had long forgotten about playing
games and his only thought was to keep moving and collect money for food.

It had to happen sooner or later. He wandered so much that one day he
unknowingly returned to the country of his birth. But he remembered
nothing. The first place he headed for was the huge castle thinking that
there he would get a large donation, but he was in for a surprise. As soon
as he began to try opening the gates the guards pushed him away he pushed back and a fight broke out.

Meanwhile, every day for the last ten years the king would climb high up in one of the castle towers, gaze into the distance and hope. What more could he do? He had already sent out hundreds of messengers and searchers year after year with no results.
Again today he remembered his son’s angelic face, his warm smiling eyes, and a small tear trickled down his cheek. “Another empty day,” he thought to himself, as he slowly turned to descend once again the tower steps.

Meanwhile down at the gate the fight was going fast and furious and the
guards were taken surprise by the strength and speed of this wild man.
Then, unexplainably, he lifted his head and noticed the old king in the
window of the tower. … And he began to cry.

“What is this?” he thought to himself “Am I a baby? Why am I crying? I
never cry!”

Then, in a flash, it all came back to him.

“I remember that building this wall! This is my house! Wait… I am the prince and that man, that old man in the window must be …… MY FATHER!! The KING!!!”

But those few seconds cost him dearly. The guards were striking him
mercilessly. He tried to protect himself from the blows but it was too late
and he realized that he was about to lose consciousness. So he desperately began crying out to his father; “FATHER, FATHER!!! HELP!!! SAVE ME!! PLEASE SAVE ME!!”

But it didn’t work. In the ten years that he was away he had forgotten his
native tongue and now his father did not understand him, and he was turning to leave.

Suddenly from the essence of his being, the young man screamed.

It came from somewhere deep inside of him, somewhere that was even deeper than all these new awesome memories and deeper than all the pain he was feeling. Even the guards were startled for a moment. First a long piercing scream … then a broken cry.
The king turned. “What is that?” he said to himself, “What is that
scream?”

He ran to the window and looked down … and their eyes met.

“Those eyes!” The King’s mind was racing, “Those are the eyes of royalty! … Those are the eyes of my son!!! MY SON!!”

The King ran down the winding tower stairs to the huge castle gates, pushed away the soldiers and ran outside toward his son. He shoved away the guards and embraced the ‘wild man’ in torn clothes and dirty hair saying, “My son, My son, don’t ever leave me again.” And the prince was home again.

This is the parable of the Baal Shem Tov; The King is G-d. His son is the
Jewish people. The Castle is the Synagogue and the scream is the blast of
the Shofar.
All the year we think that we are just ordinary people and G-d is far away.
But once a year on Rosh Hashanah we enter the Shul and realize that it’s not so; we are royalty! The King of all creation is our father! It’s just that
something is stopping us, making us almost loose our consciousness; we
desperately need the help of the King himself.

But when we try to call out we discover that we ‘forgot the language’ we can ’t really open our hearts. And that is the language that Gd really
understands.

So we blow the Shofar. The Shofar is a scream from the essence of the
Jewish heart “Father, Father, save me!”

This is what every Jew feels every time he hears the Shofar on Rosh
HaShanah.

That is why this week’s section (which always is read just before Rosh
Hashanah) begins with the uniting of all the Jews:

“You are all standing today all of you …every Jewish person”

And the Rebbe explains that ‘today’ here refers to Rosh Hashanah; on this day the Shofar unites all the Jewish people.

But too often this feeling is ignored, misinterpreted, or forgotten.

And this is the job of Moshiach.

The Moshiach will educate all the Jewish people so that no one ignores,
forgets, or misinterprets this G-dly arousal.

That is what we pray for three times a day:

“Sound the Great Shofar and gather all of us”.

We are begging G-d to send the Moshiach and accompany him with him a ‘Shofar blast’; an inspiration from above that will arouse the Jewish identity in each and every Jew.

Sounds hard to believe? Well it’s already happening. Today myriads of Jews are regaining consciousness.

In fact this is one main reason that many people believed (and some still
believe) the Lubavitch Rebbe to be Moshiach (See our Torah website) because he began to sound the Great Shofar; an unprecedented worldwide outreach network to inspire and educate EVERY JEW in the world.

May this year bring the arrival of Moshiach and may every Jew hear the
message that the Shofar carries: “HaShem!! We Want Moshiach NOW!”

May you all have a good, sweet, healthy, happy, prosperous New Year together with Moshiach NOW!

Tuvia Bolton-Yeshaiva Ohr Tmimim

"To love G-d.. and to listen to His voice.. for this is your life and the length of your days.." (Nitzavim 30:20)

The Torah gives man pure life in this world and an exalted reward in the World to Come.

In fact, the Torah is the very being of man.

This may be compared to the following: man's life-force is with equally present throughout the body, in the toes no less than in the head. Some higher soul-powers like intellect, vision, hearing etc. are indeed in the head, but they are only specific soul-powers.

The life-force itself, that which makes us living beings, is equal throughout the body, in the heels of the legs no less than in the brain of the head.

So, too, with the Torah: every aspect of a Jew's life draws its vitality from the Torah. The Torah permeates and penetrates everything in the life of the Jew, from the most sublime in his soul to the smallest details of his physical existence and reality.

This is evident from the reward promised for the observance of Torah: it is not restricted to a spiritual bonus in Heaven, which befits spiritual engagement in Torah-study and so forth. On the contrary, we are told: "If you walk in my statutes.... I shall give your rains in their
seasons and the land shall yield its produce.." (Bechukotay 26:1-2)

The fact of physical and material rewards thus indicates that the Torah relates to the total being of the Jew, to his physical reality no less than to his spiritual reality.

This explains the promise of wondrous physical benefits in the Messianic era, such as "The Land of Israel is destined to bring forth cakes and silken garments" (Shabbat 30b).

Why would there be such extraordinary physical benefits in an era marked by the increase of knowledge and wisdom, when the Jewish people will be totally immersed in pursuing the "knowledge of G-d"?

In context of the above, however, it is clear: precisely that phenomenon will demonstrate how all of creation is literally and completely bound up with the Torah and with G-d who is the 'Giver of the Torah.'

When those wonders shall be revealed and become manifest in the physical and material life and reality, all will know and realize that the Torah is literally "your life and the length of your days" - in all physical matters as well.

By Rabbi J.I. Schochet