If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments...I will give you rains in their due season, and the earth shall yield its produce, and the tree its fruit (Lev. 26:3-4)
How do we walk in G-d’s statutes? asks Rashi. By studying His Torah, he concludes. Rabbi David of Kotsk once commented on the verse, “You should believe when one tells you, ‘I have toiled and I have succeeded.’” He explained: Something a person achieves by dint of his own labor will endure, but something acquired too easily will not last. Just as effortlessly as it was won will it disappear.
That is why our Sages urge us to toil night and day in our Torah study – so our learning and knowledge will be retained. (Mishnat Yisrael)
“The word ‘im’ (‘if’) is used to imply pleading and entreaty,” the Talmud states, teaching us that G-d pleads, as it were, with every Jew: “Please walk in My statutes! Please keep My mitzvot!” G-d’s request also endows us with the strength to overcome all difficulties that might stand in the way of observing Torah and mitzvot. (Hayom Yom) As Rashi, the foremost Torah commentator explains, this refers to the mitzva of learning Torah. For the more Torah knowledge one acquires, the easier it is to observe the commandments, as Torah study itself saves a person from the Evil Inclination. (Melo HaOmer)
Why does the Torah devote so much detail to the physical reward for observing mitzvot? Isn’t the spiritual benefit far more important? And aren’t we really supposed to observe the Torah’s laws without regard for reward, but simply because G-d wants us to? Most of us have not yet reached a state in which the promise of spiritual reward is greater motivation than physical reward. The Torah therefore goes to great lengths to describe the physical blessings to which all can relate. For the same reason, our Sages devoted much detail to the physical wonders and miracles that will take place in the Days of Moshiach.
Although the ultimate good will be the open revelation of G-dliness, our appreciation of this will not be immediate. Rather, the world will have to first “mature” over a period of time in order to recognize this fact. (Sichot Kodesh, 5751)
