The Original Cause and Effect: a Thought for Parashat Ekev

Every weekly portion of the Torah offers us multiple lessons for living.  Sometimes, to see them requires that we look considerably beneath the surface.  But sometimes, the lesson is out there in the open, for all to see the second they glance at the page of the text.

This week’s Torah reading provides such a lesson, in the very opening words of the portion.  It is perhaps the Original statement of cause and effect, the epitome of the If, Then statement.  If you heed these rules and observe them carefully, then the Lord your G-d will faithfully keep the covenant He made on oath with your ancestors.

All our lives we are aware of the centrality of the if, then proposition.  The concept is so powerful, because it applies to just about everything in life.  Although we have a tendency to think of much of our lives as being out of our control, the truth is that we have an incredible power to determine our own destinies as we remember, and practice, the principle of cause and effect.  We understand that every action has its consequences, so we decide and act in such as way as to influence the consequences.

This is a powerful concept:  one that, at its heart, most of us would rather see go away.  Today, we have a tendency to attribute consequences to just about everything other than how we have acted.  It’s not my fault!  We blame things on others, and those things that we can’t blame on others, we blame on our sicknesses and conditions…which are not our fault!  In a sense, it is much easier to attribute some failing or shortcoming on external factors.  The child in us, is always in search of the unconditional.  But a big part of growing up, is accepting responsibility, and acting with the knowledge that we are, in fact, responsible for our fate.

Our Torah reading is telling us about cause and effect in a specific instance, that of what it will require if we are to not abrogate the covenant that G-d made with the people Israel in ancient times.  But in reality, it is a lesson that can be applied to just about anything and everything.  Shabbat shalom.