Acharei Mot-Kedoshim - A Time to Plant and a Time to Reap

B"H

Full source text for Acharei Mot here, and for Kedoshim here

Sources:

1) Midrash Tanchuma Kedoshim, Chapter 8

[ו] כי תבואו אל הארץ ונטעתם. אמר להם הקדוש ברוך הוא לישראל, אף על פי שתמצאו אותה מליאה כל טוב, לא תאמרו נשב ולא נטע, אלא הוו זהירין בנטיעות, שנאמר, ונטעתם כל עץ מאכל. כשם שנכנסתם ומצאתם נטיעות שנטעו אחרים, אף אתם היו נוטעים לבניכם. שלא יאמר אדם, אני זקן, כמה שנים אני חי, מה אני עומד מתיגע לאחרים, למחר אני מת.[...] מעשה באדריאנוס המלך שהיה עובר למלחמה והולך עם הגייסות שלו להלחם על מדינה אחת שמרדה עליו. מצא זקן אחד בדרך שהיה נוטע נטיעות תאנים. אמר לו אדריאנוס, אתה זקן ועומד וטורח ומתיגע לאחרים. אמר לו, אדוני המלך, הריני נוטע. אם אזכה, אוכל מפירות נטיעותי. ואם לאו, יאכלו בני. עשה שלש שנים במלחמה וחזר. לאחר שלש שנים מצא לאותו זקן באותו מקום. מה עשה אותו זקן, נטל סלסלה ומלא אותה בכורי תאנים יפות וקרב לפני אדריאנוס. אמר לפניו, אדני המלך, קבל מן עבדך. אני הוא אותו הזקן שמצאת אותי בהליכתך, ואמרת לי, אתה זקן מה אתה מצטער עומד ומתיגע לאחרים, הרי כבר זכני המקום לאכול מפירות נטיעותי, ואלה שבתוך הסלסלה מהן מנתך. מיד אמר אדריאנוס לעבדיו, טלו אותה ממנו ומלאו אותה זהובים, ועשו כך. נטל הזקן הסלסלה מלאה זהובים, והתחיל הולך ומשתבח בביתו לאשתו ולבניו. סח להם את המעשה. היתה שכנתו עומדת שם, שמעה מה אמר הזקן. אמרה לבעלה, כל בני אדם הולכין והקדוש ברוך הוא נותן להם ומזמן להם טובה, ואתה יושב בבית חשוך באופל. הרי שכן שלנו כבד את המלך בסלסלה של תאנים ומלא אותה לו זהובים. ועתה עמוד וטול סל גדול ומלא אותו כל מיני מגדים מן תפוחים ותאנים ושאר פירות יפות שהוא אוהב אותן הרבה, לך וכבדו בהן, שמא ימלא לך זהובים, כמו שעשה לשכננו הזקן. הלך ושמע לאשתו, ונטל סל גדול ומלא אותו כל מיני מגדים תאנים ותפוחים וטען על כתפו וקרב לפני המלך בקופנדר. ועמד ואמר, אדוני המלך, שמעתי שאתה אוהב את הפירות, ובאתי לכבדך בתאנים ותפוחים. אמר המלך לסרדיוטין שלו, טלו אותו ממנו וטפחו אותן על פניו. עמדו והפשיטוהו ערום והתחילו טופחין אותו על פניו עד שנפחו פניו, סימו את עיניו ועשאוהו דוגמא, והלך לביתו בפחי נפש כשהוא עשוי דוגמא, בוכה. והיתה אשתו סבורה שהוא בא בסל מלא זהובים. וראתה אותו עשוי דוגמא ועיניו נפוחות וגופו משובר ומוכה. אמרה לו, מה לך. אמר לה, ששמעתי לך והלכתי לכבד את המלך באותו הסל, וטפחו אותו על פני. אלולי ששמעתי לך והטלתי אותו הסל אתרוגין, כבר היו מרגימין אותי את כל גופי בהן. כל כך למה. ללמדך, שהנשים הרעות מפילות את בעליהן ברעה. לפיכך לא יבטל אדם מן הנטיעות. אלא כשם שמצא, עוד יוסיף ויטע, אפילו יהיה זקן. אמר הקדוש ברוך הוא לישראל, למדו ממני, כביכול אני צריך, שנאמר, ויטע ה' אלהים גן בעדן מקדם (בראשית ב ח): 

N.B. for anyone who has difficulty reading the original text, due to the length of this midrash rather than doing both transliterations and translations of the whole text, I will summarise/quote translations from it below as best as I can, while transliterating key words/phrases. Hope this helps...

'V'ki tavo el ha'aretz u'n'tatem kol etz ma'achal...' - When you come to the land and you shall plant any tree from which to eat...(Vayikra 19:23)

Basing itself upon the wording of the above pasuk from parshat Kedoshim, the Midrash Tanchuma at source 1) comes to teach us that 'Even though you will find the Land full with all that is good, you should not say 'We will sit and not plant' [i.e. passively rely on G-d's promise of sustenance]. Rather, be careful to plant...Just as when you entered and found saplings that others had planted, so too you should plant for your children.'

The midrash further goes on to explain that we should not use our own mortality as a justification for apathy by arguing that, as we may not live long enough to enjoy the fruits of our labours, there is no point in working only to benefit others. Initially, the midrash brings a proof-text from sefer Kohelet to show that G-d hides from us the knowledge of when we will die precisely to avoid this attitude, so that we can be motivated to build and plant in the hope that we ourselves will benefit from the results (and, if not, that others will).

While this may seem like a nice little vort, the midrash does not stop here - instead, we are treated to an extensive mashal (parable) telling of two gifts of fruit brought to the 'melech Adriyonus' i.e. the Roman Caesar Hadrian*, with drastically different results as paraphrased below:

Part One

On his way to quash a rebellion, Hadrian finds an old man planting fig trees by the side of a road. Hadrian asks him why he is tiring himself out over these for the benefit of others (as there is little chance of his living long enough to eat the fruits himself). The old man responds to the effect that if he merits it so, he will eat the fruits himself - but if not, his children will eat the fruit that he has planted.

Three years later, Hadrian returns from war and meets the old man again. The old man fills a basket with the bikurim (first fruits) of his fig trees and brings them to Hadrian, reminding him of their previous encounter and explaining that G-d has granted him the merit of eating from the trees he has planted - therefore, he has brought some of the fruit as a present for Hadrian. Hadrian immediately orders the old man's basket to be filled with gold coins instead of the figs and the old man returns home in triumph to his family.

Part Two

Hearing the old man's story, his neighbour suggests to her husband that he takes a big basket, fill it with sweets, apples, figs and other beautiful fruits and take them to Hadrian in the hope that he will also be rewarded with a basketful of golden coins. The husband follows his wife's suggestions and brings his basket before Hadrian with the explanation that he had heard that Hadrian loved fruit. Hadrian's response is to order the hapless husband to be stripped and pelted on his face with his own fruits until he is battered and bruised. Despondent, he returns home to show his wife the result of his listening to her suggestions. 

The conclusion of the above mashal is two-fold: 'evil women persuade their husbands to evil' (!), and (as before) one should not refrain from planting even in old age. However, lest this seem a little harsh to those of the female persuasion, let's take a closer look at where the husband and wife of Part 2 go wrong. 

The first thing to notice is who the characters are. While in most mashalim the melech figure is representing G-d, here things are rather more complex as the melech is explicitly named as Hadrian, at once one of the Jews' greatest enemies (responsible for crushing the Bar-Kochba revolt and trying to eradicate Torah observance) and someone who is often seen in Talmudic literature questioning Jewish practice with the result that he (and the reader) has a point proven to him - as is the case in Part 1 of this mashal.** While Hadrian could be said to represent G-d in his role of dishing out rewards and punishments, G-d therefore also appears as a third party in the mashal.

Secondly, there are the differences between the gifts of fruit and the purpose behind them. In Part 1, the old man is specifically bringing Hadrian the bikkurim from his fig trees to show both that the old man's labor on the road-side all those years before have not been in vain, and that the old man's hope in the face of his own mortality has been rewarded by G-d. Hadrian's reward of gold coins therefore appears to be in recognition of the important lesson which the old man has taught him.

So, what goes wrong in Part 2? After all, looking at the wife's words to her husband we can see that she actually makes a valid complaint: 'kol b'nei adam holchin v'HaKadosh Baruch Hu noten lahem u'm'zamen lahem tova, v'atah yoshev b'bayit hoshech ba'ofel' (All people go about and the Holy One, Blessed be He, gives to them and provides them with good, but you sit here in a dark and dim house). In other words, the husband has failed to take heed of the midrash's overall message and is passively sitting around on his tuches instead of going out to plant trees - whether for his own benefit or for future generations.

Unfortunately both husband and wife fail to recognise the spiritual depth of the old man's gift to Hadrian and the fact that his reward results from his earlier labours and trust in G-d, not simply from his bringing a gift to the powerful Caesar. Instead, the wife's suggestion shows a presumption that the gift of beautiful fruits in itself was the source of the old man's reward of gold - hence her encouragement to her husband to bring an even larger gift in the hope of getting a quick and easy reward without any effort of tree-planting etc. Furthermore, when bringing his gift the man makes no mention of G-d and instead panders to Hadrian's presumed love of fruit - oblivious to the fact that Hadrian's earlier reward of gold had been in appreciation not of the old man's figs but of its spiritual significance. Middah k'neged middah, he is therefore punished by Hadrian (here named simply as 'melech', and therefore possibly representing G-d Himself) with the very fruit which he has brought.

This, it seems, is where the 'evil' of the old man's neighbour and her husband lie. For the old man, while one may certainly hope to be rewarded one's work, the most important thing is to make the effort even if one is not rewarded for it. His neighbours, however, exemplify the 'get rich quick' approach by assuming that one will immediately be rewarded through making superficial 'gifts' to G-d/those in power, thereby bypassing the need to put in any effort to provide for oneself.

While we no longer live in the agricultural society of the midrash, we can certainly still apply its message to many areas of our lives. Praying/doing mitzvot etc. should not be carried out in the simplistic expectation that by going through the motions of Torah observance our wishes will automatically be fulfilled. However, we should also be careful not to fall into the same trap as the wife of our mashal and assume that we know the full reasons behind others' apparent reward or punishment. Just as the significance of the old man's gift to Hadrian lay in a conversation three years' earlier which was not known to outsiders, so too we cannot expect to fully see or understand another person's relationship with G-d.

Shavua tov!

RPT

*At least, I am assuming this is Hadrian...if I have gone horribly wrong on this assumption, please tell me!

** In particular, Hadrian is shown in dialogue with R' Yehoshua ben Chananya, one of the Tana'aim who seems to have enjoyed somewhat friendly relations with Hadrian. In terms of this midrash, it is therefore also highly poignant that instead of bringing his bikkurim as a korban (offering) in the Beit HaMikdash - as, presumably, he would have done had it been standing - the bikkurim are 'kerav lifney' (brought/offered before) Hadrian, symbol of Rome and of the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash.