When you think about the pure concepts, it would seem that it
is quite easy to distinguish a cause from its effect. The
effect is dependent on the cause, but the cause is not
dependent on the effect. The cause will bring about the
effect, but the presence of the effect does not always
indicate the prior presence of the cause unless it is
exclusive.
All this seems clear and almost elementary, but in fact it is
often anything but straightforward when trying to sort things
out in practice.
A dog, it is said, bites the stick that strikes it, not
realizing that it is not the real cause of his pain. People
used to believe all kinds of fantastic theories about how
disease was transmitted, before it was discovered that tiny
creatures pass from one person to another.
But these two are not parallel, or at least, the parallel is
not as obvious as it might appear at first.
It does not fully explain the dog's life, in this case, to
just note that really the person wielding the stick is the
cause of the blows that are bothering him. If the dog gets a
little smarter and bites the person he may get hit even more
severely. Rather there is some reason -- something that the
dog has done for example -- that the person is beating the
dog, and only when the dog learns that he must not dig up the
flower bed, for example, will the beatings stop.
It is really the same thing with diseases, but the reality is
much deeper and not generally recognized these days. The real
mechanisms underlying sickness have mainly to do with the
moral life of the patient. We do have permission to use
material medicinal means and they do have effects, but the
level of real causation is the moral one, and Hashem is the
real source of healing and of sickness and health. It is
one's relationship with Hashem, as determined by fulfillment
of Torah and mitzvos, that is the critical factor in health
and sickness, and not his relationship with a doctor.
This insight is especially true about living in Eretz
Yisroel, where the pesukim make it clear over and over
that our success in living in the Holy Land is dependent on
doing what Hashem wants us to do and on not doing what He
does not want us to do. This means keeping the mitzvos of
Eretz Yisroel, and not tolerating Jewish chilul
Shabbos, for example, or other abominations that are
fashionable in the modern world, as they once were among the
Canaanites who were vomited out of Eretz Yisroel.
The parsha of the Meraglim makes it clear that it is
not rejecting Eretz Yisroel as the Meraglim did, nor self-
sacrifice to acquire Eretz Yisroel as the ma'apilim
showed, that can determine success or failure. The crucial
factor is hearkening to what Hashem wants.
Being allowed the wonderful privilege of living in Eretz
Yisroel is a response to the rest of what we do. If we are
full of machlokes, if we are not careful with our
obligations bein odom lechavero, if we do not protest
the chilul Shabbos and the murder of Jews by criminal
Jews, and the other abominations that go on, if we do not
learn and protect Torah at every step, then, chas
vesholom, we undermine our right to Eretz Yisroel. If we
are forced to leave Eretz Yisroel, it is an effect that has
many causes.
It is not by joining or leaving an Israeli government that
will make-or-break our claim to Eretz Yisroel. By allying
ourselves to Hashem and everything that he asks of us, in all
areas of life, we become worthy residents of Eretz
Yisroel.
