Q&A: A Question About Reward and Punishment
A Question About Reward and Punishment
Question
Hello Rabbi,
We see motifs in the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) that repeat themselves: doing good is rewarded in various ways, and doing evil is the opposite. First of all, already today I can’t see this in reality. Religious Jewish societies are not wealthier (maybe happier, and even that not always). Second, even in the Hebrew Bible itself you can see that this does not happen—in Psalms chapter 7 and in the book of Job, and in many other places as well in Psalms, for example, where the Hebrew Bible rhetorically asks why the wicked prosper. a0
In what situation, and in what way, would we indeed see this correlation?
Answer
The gates of interpretation have not been locked, and precisely because of that I do not see value in studying the Hebrew Bible. You won’t learn anything from it. If you want to know facts, such as whether prayer and commandments help with anything (in my opinion they do not), you need to check that empirically and not through interpretations of the Hebrew Bible.
Discussion on Answer
I’ve already explained this more than once.
Either in the past there really was divine involvement that rewarded people measure for measure in this world (the Sages already say that there is no reward for a commandment in this world), or it is talking about reward in the World to Come, or the world becomes better if people keep the commandments, but that is not reward as a result of divine involvement.
Hello Rabbi,
Still, I’ll ask: how do you understand, for example, in the Torah portion Ki Teitzei? It seemingly presents an equation of: if you do what the Torah says, things will go well for you. If you do not, you will be punished.
I also don’t think that’s how it works. But I’d be glad to hear how you interpret it / deal with it.
Thank you very much.