Parashas Eikev: On Attributing Our Success to Hashem

Click here for a printer-friendly version of this blog post. This week's dvar Torah is a blog post I wrote in January 2012. 

Artwork: Fistful of Force, by Ralph Horsley

Parashas Eikvev: On Attributing Our Success to Hashem

"Who is responsible for my success?" To the Torah-observant Jew, the answer to this question is obvious: "Hashem is responsible for your success." This is certainly correct. The Torah addresses this exact question in the famous "kochi v'otzem yadi" passage:

Lest you eat and be satisfied, and you build good houses and settle, and your cattle and sheep and goats increase, and you increase silver and gold for yourselves, and everything that you have will increase – and your heart will become haughty and you will forget Hashem, your God, Who took you out of the land of Egypt from the house of slavery … And you will say in your heart, ‘My ability and the might of my own hand made me all this wealth!’ Then you shall remember Hashem, your God: that it is He Who gives you the ability to make wealth. (Devarim 8:12-18)

However, if we are honest with ourselves, some of us will be bothered by a nagging question in the back of our minds: "I understand that everything is from Hashem ... but are you really telling me that my own talents and abilities had nothing to do with my success, and that Hashem is the sole cause of my success?"

Thankfully, the Ran addresses this exact issue at the beginning of his tenth drashah:

[Moshe Rabbeinu] warned Yisrael about two things: (1) that they should not ascribe their success to their own ability and to the might of their hand, and (2) that they should not ascribe their conquest of the land to their own merit. He began by saying: “Lest you eat and be satisfied, and you build good houses and settle, and your cattle and sheep and goats increase … And you will say in your heart, ‘My ability and the might of my own hand made me all this wealth!’ Then you shall remember Hashem, your God: that it is He Who gives you the ability to make wealth.” 

The meaning of this is as follows: The truth is that people have different talents in different areas. For example, certain people are predisposed to receive wisdom, whereas others are predisposed to devise strategies to gather and amass [wealth]. On account of this, the wealthy man can truthfully say, from a certain angle, “My ability and the might of my hand made me this wealth.” Nevertheless, insofar as that ability was implanted within you, be sure to remember Who gives you the ability to make wealth.

Moshe did not say, “Then you shall remember that Hashem is the One Who gives you wealth,” for if he had said that, he would be minimizing [the fact] that the ability implanted within the person is an intermediate cause in the accumulation of that wealth – but this is not the case. Therefore he said: “Although your ability is what made you this wealth, you should remember Who gives you that ability (blessed is He).”

The Ran highlights what many of us miss: the Torah does not command us to remember that Hashem is the One Who gives us our wealth, but rather, the Torah commands us to remember that Hashem is the One Who gives us the ability to make wealth. 

This subtle distinction is extremely important, for without it, the Torah's statement would be false. Chazal teach us: "ha'kol bi'ydei shamayim chutz mi'yiras shamayim" which means "Everything is in the hands of heaven except for the fear of heaven" (Berachos 33b). Everything in the universe, from the smallest particle to the largest galaxy, is governed by the Divine laws of the Creator. There is only one exception: the free will decisions of human beings. Our choices, whether for good or bad, are caused by us - not by Hashem.

It is for this reason that the Ran writes: "the wealthy man can truthfully say, from a certain angle, 'My ability and the might of my hand made me this wealth.'" When J.D. Rockefeller founded Standard Oil, and when Warren Buffet invested in Berkshire Hathaway, and when Steve Jobs created the iPod, it was their decisions which were the intermediate causes of their success. To deny this fact would be to deny the Torah's fundamental principle of free will.

Nonetheless, the mistake of "kochi v'otzem yadi" is to feel as though one can take all or most of the credit for one's successes. Such a feeling would be false, foolish, and exceedingly egotistical. Consider the following categories of factors and ask yourself whether it's rational to take credit for your success:

• Abilities: Even though you made the choices that resulted in your wealth or success, Who gave you the ability to make such choices? Who gave you all of the talents and skills you needed in order to accomplish whatever it is that you accomplished? Can you really take credit for these abilities?
• Dispositions: And if you'll still try to take credit for developing these talents and skills through hard work, Who gave you the dispositions and character traits that enabled you to put in all of that hard work? How much of your personality - whether developed by nature or nurture - can you actually take credit for?
• Opportunities: Who is responsible for the opportunities you had to make those critical decisions? Likewise, Who gave you the opportunities to develop your talents and skills? Could you have made these decisions or developed your potential on your own, without these opportunities?
• Obstacles: Think of all the obstacles that could have delayed, impeded, or prevented your success. Think of all the things that could have gone wrong and led to your failure. Think of how many factors had to be in place for your plans to play out as they did. Can you really take credit for preventing these innumerable obstacles?
• Materials: Think of the materials necessary for you to achieve your success. Who created those materials with the properties they have? Who made them available for you to use? Did you create matter?
• Natural Laws: Think about the laws of nature that made your success possible. Who created those laws and keeps them running? Did you design the laws of the universe? 

I'm sure there are more categories than this, but the point is clear: it would be the utmost degree of egotism for a person to feel, "my ability and the might of my own hand made me this wealth." To relish that feeling is to forget Hashem and to set oneself up as the melech olam. This is the mentality that the Torah is coming to warn against. 

(Parenthetically, a friend of mine pointed out to me that Onkelos translates "כִּי הוּא הַנֹּתֵן לְךָ כֹּחַ לַעֲשׂוֹת חָיִל" as "ארי הוא יהיב לך עיצא למקני נכסין" which means "He is the One Who gives you counsel to acquire possessions." I am inclined to think that Onkelos is alluding to the idea expressed by the Ran - all by a subtle change in his translation of a single word.)

The Ran mentioned that Moshe warned Bnei Yisrael about two things: (1) that they should not ascribe their success to their own ability and to the might of their hand, and (2) that they should not ascribe their conquest of the land to their own merit. The second part of his warning pertains to the following pesukim:

Hear, O Israel, today you cross the Jordan, to come and drive out nations that are greater and mightier than you, cities that are great and fortified up to the heavens, a great and lofty people, children of giants, that you knew and of whom you have heard, “Who can stand up against the children of the giant?” But you know today that Hashem, your God – He crosses the border before you, a consuming fire; He will destroy them and He will subjugate them before you; you will drive them out and cause them to perish quickly, as Hashem spoke to you. Do not say in your heart, when Hashem pushes them away from before you, saying, “Because of my righteousness did Hashem bring me to possess the Land and because of the wickedness of these nations did Hashem drive them away from before you.” Not because of your righteousness and the uprightness of your heart are you coming to possess their Land, but because of the wickedness of these nations does Hashem, your God, drive them away from before you, and in order to establish the word that Hashem swore to your forefathers, to Avraham, to Yitzchak, and to Yaakov. And you should know that not because of your righteousness does Hashem, your God, give you this good Land to possess it, for you are a stiff-necked people. (Devarim 9:1-6)

The Ran notes a discrepancy in the pesukim: at first Moshe criticizes those who attribute their success to their own ability and might, but now he criticizes those who attribute their success to their righteousness and uprightness of heart. What is the relationship between these two erroneous patterns of thinking? 

The Ran explains: 

Here he did not say, “My ability and the power of my hand etc.” but he said, “Do not say in your heart, when Hashem pushes them away from before you, saying, 'Because of my righteousness did Hashem bring me to possess the Land etc.'” This is as if he is saying: “Listen to me further, O Israel, regarding that matter about which you are doubtful. For you are crossing the Jordan to come to drive out from the Land nations that are bigger and stronger than you. I am not worried that you will claim that you overpowered them with your power, for  [in truth] they are bigger and stronger than you, and you lack the ability [to defeat them]. Rather, since it is Hashem (blessed is He) Who is driving them out, and not your own power, I am worried that you will say in your heart that it is your righteousness and uprightness of heart that caused this. 

The reason for this as follows: due to his ego and haughtiness (which distorts his own practical thinking), man will ascribe his successes to himself in any way possible. In matters that are contingent on his wisdom and good planning he will think that his own wisdom is what prevailed for him. In matters that he perceives as exceeding his abilities and planning, he will ascribe [his successes] to his own merit. 

Therefore, Moshe said: “Regarding the conquest of these mighty nations which surpass you in strategic planning and power – I am afraid, lest you ascribe this matter to your righteousness. Do not do this, for you are a stiff-necked people, and you are not worthy of this on the basis of your merit, for you have sinned and rebelled excessively against the Word of Hashem (blessed is He),” as he recounts to them in great detail in the pesukim (ibid. 9:7-24), and in general by saying, “You have been rebels against Hashem from the day that I knew you!” (ibid. 9:24).

This is a much sneakier ploy of the yeter ha'ra: attributing our success to our "merit." The tricky thing about "merit" is that it can feel like we are giving credit to Hashem, since we do believe that Hashem rewards us on the basis of our merit. But as the Ran points out, this might just another expression of egotism. Even worse, one can easily slip into the mentality that Hashem owed you this success, which is another (albeit more subtle) form of "forgetting Hashem."

This egotistical sense of merit-based entitlement can manifest itself in many forms. In the case of Bnei Yisrael, their feeling of merit was attached to their sense of "righteousness and uprightness of heart." All types of merit ultimately boil down to the same basic feeling: "I deserve success because I am special." This is the second mentality the Torah comes to warn against.

To summarize: whenever we achieve success, we must guard against the egotistical tendency to take credit for that success. There are two erroneous mentalities we can fall into: (1) "kochi v'otzem yadi," - forgetting that Hashem is the cause of every aspect of our success (with the sole exception of the actual choices we make), and (2) "baavur tzidkasi" - believing that Hashem helped us succeed because we have special merit, and are entitled to our success.