Two pesukim in Tehillim apparently contradict each
other. The first pasuk states, “... לַה' הָאָרֶץ וּמְלֹואָה תֵּבֵל וְיֹשְׁבֵי בָהּ׃/The earth and its contents are God’s, the
inhabited land and those who dwell in it.” (24:1) Everything obviously belongs to God. That David HaMelech makes a point of mentioning it
implies that we cannot use the world for our own benefit without
permission. Another pasuk however
states, “הַשָּׁמַיִם שָׁמַיִם
לַה' וְהָאָרֶץ נָתַן לִבְנֵיֽ־אָדָֽם׃/As
for the heavens, the heavens are God’s, but He has given the earth to mankind.”
(115:16) This pasuk seems to be
teaching us that God gave us the earth to use as we see fit, a clear
contradiction to the first pasuk.
Chazal learn from this contradiction that before benefitting from
this world, we must say a blessing.[1] Before we say a blessing, the earth belongs
to God and we may not benefit from it.
It is not ours. When we say a
blessing, God gives it to us. It becomes
ours and we may benefit from it. What is
the significance of the blessing? By
what mechanism does saying a blessing transfer ownership, as it were, from God
to us?
We can glean an understanding of the significance of
blessings from the continuation of this ma’amar Chazal. Chazal say that deriving benefit from this
world without saying a blessing is like receiving personal benefit from sacred
items of the Beis HaMikdash. We can
clearly understand that we must ask permission to use something that is not
ours. Why, though, do Chazal compare
deriving unauthorized benefit from the physical world to deriving unauthorized
benefit from sanctified items of the Beis HaMikdash? Chazal are teaching us that there is holiness
in the entire world. Every creation is
imbued with holiness.
When we think about it, we realize that it must be this way
because God is everywhere giving life to everything. How, then, can we derive personal pleasure
from anything? The answer, the Sfas Emes
explains, is by accepting the holiness, the Godliness, in everything. When we acknowledge that the apple we are
about to eat is imbued with holiness, we connect with that holiness when we eat
it even as we derive physical pleasure from it.
The mechanism for recognizing this holiness is the blessings that Chazal
established before benefiting from this world.
God wants us to use the physical world to do His will. By accepting the holiness in the physical,
God gives us the physical to use. The
Sfas Emes explained this in the first ma’amar on this week’s parsha. There he explained the pasuk in our parsha, “וְעָשׂוּ לִי מִקְדָּשׁ וְשָֽׁכַנְתִּי
בְּתוֹכָֽם׃/You shall make Me
a sanctuary and I will dwell among them.” (Shmos 25:8) The Sfas Emes explains that this pasuk is not
just a command to make a physical sanctuary, a building, for God. It is a command to recognize that God is in
everything, every creation and every action.
By recognizing this, we are making everything in the world a sanctuary
for God. When we do this, God reveals
Himself as the end of the pasuk implies, “וְשָֽׁכַנְתִּי בְּתוֹכָֽם/I will dwell among them.” God is here whether we recognize Him or
not. Dwelling among them, though, implies
that we will feel His presence.
The key point is that in order to benefit from the world in a way
that connects us to God, it must be given to us. We cannot take it. This is why the pasuk states, “וְהָאָרֶץ נָתַן לִבְנֵיֽ־אָדָם/and He gave the earth to
mankind.” We find this concept in an
interesting law regarding divorce. If a man
tells his wife, “Take your get (divorce certificate),” the divorce is
invalid.[2] He must give her the get. The pasuk says clearly, “וְנָתַן בְּיָדָהּ/he shall give it into her hand.” (Devarim
24:1) Freedom cannot be taken. It must be given. May we merit using the world that God has
given us to fulfill His will thereby basking in His presence in this world.
