This week’s parasha begins with the words:

See, this day I set before you blessing and curse: the blessing, when you heed the commandments of the Lord your God that I enjoin upon you this day; and the curse, if you do not heed the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn away from the path that I enjoin upon you this day and follow other gods, whom you have not experienced. (Deuteronomy 11:26-28)

While at first glance these verses may seem quite straightforward, they are open to different interpretations, primarily because of the ambiguity of the words asher tishme’u – “when you heed” –  and because the two parts of the parallelism employ different terminology: “blessing, when you heed” (haberakha asher tishme’u) and “curse, if you do not heed” (vehakelalah im lo tishme’u). Thus, for example, Nachmanides takes the word asher (“when”) at its plain meaning, indicating time. Thus, the verses represent a parallel promise and warning that offer us a choice:

…the uses of asher (when) are many. Some indicate time, like “When Joseph came up to his brothers (Genesis 37: 23); “And when they had eaten up the rations (Genesis 43:2), and such like…and “the blessing, when you heed the commandments of the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 11:27). (Nachmanides, Leviticus 4:22)

As opposed to this, Ibn Ezra offers a different reading of the word asher, seeing the words “when you heed” not as stipulating a condition but as indicating an effect:

The blessing, when you heed: Because by obeying you are blessed. (Ibn Ezra, Deut. 11:27)

The Sefas Emes (Rabbi Yehuda Leib Alter, 1847-1905) takes this  idea a step further:

The blessing, when you heed, etc: Because the reward of a mitzvah is a mitzvah. That is, God desires that this be the reward for a mitzvah, and it is the purpose of the mitzvah, for that is the King’s wish. For the purpose of all the mitzvoth is to purify Israel…(Sefas Emes, Tractate Makkot 23b)

According to this approach, the blessing is not a prize for obeying or performing. Rather, performing the mitzvah is its own reward. The blessing is not a reward for good behaviour, and the curse is not a punishment for bad behaviour. The blessing is the essence of the mitzvah, while refraining from the mitzvah is the curse.

1.      If every good act is rewarded, and every evil act punished, do we truly enjoy freedom of choice? Does a carrot-and-stick approach contradict the idea of free will?

2.      Experience shows us that good deeds are not immediately rewarded, and evil is not always punished. Indeed, at times it would seem that the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper. Does the fact that the verses are worded in the plural tell us that the blessings and the curses are not directed at us as individuals but as members of a society? Would it be correct to state that obeying God’s commandments “blesses” society, while disobeying God’s law “curses” society? In what way?

3.      Rabbi Bahya Ibn Paquda took the view that the words “when you heed” express a belief in innate human goodness, and presuppose the performance of the mitzvot, whereas the words “if you do not heed” express an eventuality that need never be realized. Is that presupposition well founded? Is being good truly human nature?