We read in the parsha a few weeks ago, how Hashem cursed the snake for his indiscretion by providing him with food to eat via the dust of the earth for all of his days. The question here is obvious and I believe one which is posed by the holy Sfas Emes of Gur.
Is this a curse!?
What kind of curse is it for the snake to have been guaranteed easy sustenance for all of his life?!
Indeed, the snake doesn’t have to toil for his food and literally has an abundance of it wherever he goes!
The answer which the Sfas Emes gives is beautiful and compelling. He says the following:
Because Hashem loves us, he desires more than anything to have a relationship with us. He wants to hear from us. He wants us to talk to him – constantly. He wants us to beseech him for that which we are lacking and then he will provide us with our needs.
The reason he withholds things from us in the first place, is so that we will (hopefully) reach out to him – and in so doing, will foster and cultivate a relationship with him.
It is this connection and this relationship that he desires more than anything and there is no greater show of love and no greater merit and blessing than to be given the opportunity to cleave to our creator!
Conversely, the snake was cursed with an unlimited supply of food to eat, because God wanted nothing to do with the snake anymore! Hashem was saying, here – take all that you need and don’t bother me for all of your days because I don’t desire a relationship with you!
There is no greater curse than to be made so self sufficient that one has no need to reach out to his creator and by the design of his creator! For this setup actually defeats the purpose of one’s very creation!
I previously wrote how Rav Shimshon Pincus once asked why Hashem doesn’t provide us with a lump sum in response to our Tefilos for Parnassa. He asked why it is that we must keep coming back to Hashem for more and more…again and again…
Why can’t Hashem allow us to simply win the lottery and we will be thankful to him just the same, asked Rav Shimshon?
The answer he gave was the same as the answer of the Sfas Emes above.
Hashem wants us to always be connected to him. He therefore sets it up this way to encourage us to keep coming back to him like a child to a father, for that which we are lacking.
This is a blessing for us, not a curse!
If Hashem gave us so much ‘up front’, it would diminish our responsibility to cultivate that relationship that he desires so much and that would be a curse not a blessing!
Beautiful words…I only wish I’d be able to internalize them…..…..
Very well put together…
I also wish that you would be able to internalize it.