At the beginning of this week’s Torah portion, Ki Tavo, the Israelites are given instructions for when they bring the first harvest of the promised land as an offering to the Temple. They are told: “And you shall be joyful in all the good that YHVH your God has given you.” Later in the portion, Moses recites beautiful words of blessing, a promise of all the good that will come if the Israelites heed God’s voice, followed by over 50 verses of “rebuke,” a catalog of horrors awaiting them if they fail to do so. This long list of calamities is reminiscent of much of what is going on around the globe today – war, famine, horrible violence, collective misery. And in the midst of this terrible list, the Israelites are told that all of this will come to be “because you did not serve your Source of Being with gladness and with a full heart when everything was abundant.”
It has always been striking to me that the Torah imagines the community’s greatest failure as a lack of gratitude and joy, specifically in moments of abundance. Elsewhere in Deuteronomy, the Israelites are warned that if they forget that they are not personally responsible for that abundance, if they ignore the reality that they are reliant on the Source of Life for all that they have, then they will forget their covenantal obligations and go astray.
The Torah here seems to be warning against what the Buddhist tradition calls delusion, ignorance and greed. Collectively, we have what we need, yet we always strive for more, and in our greed, cause endless conflict and deplete the earth’s resources. We mistakenly think that the abundance we enjoy – an abundance derived from the gifts of the earth and the contributions of others – is the result of our own power, and then we seek more power. We forget that we are intrinsically connected to all of humanity, to all life on earth, and sow dissension and hatred. We forget, the Torah teaches, and we collectively suffer the consequences.
One way to counter these tendencies, the Torah suggests, is to practice gratitude and joy in that which we do have. It is to savor the good in our lives, and in one another. This appears to be not a surface happiness, but a deep sense of connection and wellbeing that we can only achieve when we can acknowledge “enough.” It is a mindset that celebrates interconnection, and pushes back against the tendency to fear and despise the “other.” It is a mindset that lifts up humility over the worship of power and privilege. It is a call to service to the One, to the Source of Life, for the sake of one’s self and the common good.
As we head into Shabbat, may we be blessed to savor the sweet moments we experience. May we have opportunities to pause and be grateful for whatever we are enjoying in that moment. May the blessings of Shabbat oneg, Shabbat delight, wash over us, and bring a bit of healing to all of the aches in our hearts.
