I have lost count of how many times people have come to me with the inevitable question: W.I.F.M.? – What’s in it for me?

It is one of the defining questions of our age. Before accepting a responsibility, joining an organization, making a contribution, or adopting a new practice, we want to know what we will receive in return. Will it make me happier? More successful? More respected? Will it save me time, improve my health, advance my career, strengthen my relationships, or bring me closer to God?

The question is not inherently selfish. Human beings need motivation. Judaism itself speaks openly about blessing and reward. Still, when every decision begins and ends with “What’s in it for me?” something important is lost. Life becomes transactional. Relationships become exchanges. Even religion can become a spiritual rewards program in which mitzvot are the points we accumulate and blessing is the prize we expect to redeem.

Parshat Re’eh challenges that way of thinking. Moshe tells the Israelites: “See, I set before you this day blessing and curse: the blessing, that you heed the commandments of the Eternal your God; and the curse, if you do not heed the commandments” (Deuteronomy 11:26–28).1

The Hebrew contains a striking asymmetry. With regard to the curse, the Torah says im lo tishme’u – “if you do not heed.” We would expect the blessing to be presented in the same way: “the blessing, if you heed the commandments.” Instead, the Torah says et haberakhah asher tishme’u – literally, “the blessing, that you heed the commandments.”

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch calls attention to this change. The Torah does not say only that blessing will follow obedience. Hirsch understands the fulfillment of God’s commandments to be part of the blessing itself. The mitzvah is not merely the price paid for a future reward. A life shaped........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)