Based on Be'er Mayim Chayim, Ohev Yisroel, and other sources in  Chasidut and  Kabbala

If you will walk in my ways and be careful to keep my commandments, then I will give you your rain in its season and the earth will bring forth it's produce, and the trees of the field will bear their fruit. (Lev. 26:3-4)

Throughout the generations,  Torah commentators have asked, "How could it be that G-d seems to promise a reward for serving Him and keeping the mitzvot? Don't our sages say, "The reward for keeping mitzvot is not in This World, [rather in the World to Come]?" (Kiddushin 39b) Also, "One shouldn't serve G-d like a servant who serves the master only in order to receive his due recompense, rather one should serve as a faithful servant, without any intention of receiving reward." (see  Mishna Avot 1:3)

" The mitzvot are conduits which bring down all the goodness and blessing from their source above...."

Why then does the Torah even mention the promise of rains and agricultural bounty if it is forbidden to maintain such intentions in one's mind? It really would have been better for the Torah to have omitted these verses completely, then one wouldn't have any inclination of serving G-d for ulterior motives, and the blessings would anyway come their own. It is well known that the mitzvot are conduits which bring down all the goodness and blessing from their source above to us below.

Certainly one who serves G-d for the right reasons, and exerts oneself in Torah, prayer and other mitzvot, will be blessed by G-d's generous hand in all matters, spiritual as well as physical.

One who sets out to serve G-d must aim to do so in the best possible way, without ulterior motives or speculation over any eventual reward. Serving G-d should be undertaken with enthusiasm and love for G-d, as well as with awe and trembling out of concern for performing the mitzvah properly according to Torah Law. Furthermore, one should accept upon himself that if he indeed did a mitzvah with even some minute amount of ulterior motivation, then he would be willing to forfeit any reward that it might incur.

" The souls who...will come again to inhabit and enliven the bodies in perfect harmony...."

Nevertheless, if you do see that the G-d's blessing are showering down in you as the verse describes, let this be your sign that you have been serving G-d with the proper intentions and motivation. It is impossible for the blessings to come as a result of our inventions without serving G-d as He would like us to. The actual objective of the Torah is not to promise us a reward for serving G-d, but to present us with a sign that we are serving G-d properly.

This verse contains a hint to the future revival of the dead. "The earth will bring forth its produce" means that in this time all the bodies interred in the land will emerge whole and intact. The "trees of the field will bear their fruit" refers to the souls who, having completed their healing throughout many incarnations, will come again to inhabit and enliven the bodies in perfect harmony.

[Ohev Yisrael, Rabbi Avraham  Yehoshua Heschel of Apt]

Rabbi Binyomin Adilman is the former head of the Nis

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