Not Following The Will Of Hashem - A Bomb - Limited Service - Uprooting The Powerful Connection To One's Money And Bees Buzzing

לרפואת פרץ ישראל בן בתיה קיילא
ובנימין בן רחל בתוך שח"י


The gemara [Brachos 35] says that the pasuk that we say in Krias Shma ואספת דגנך - You will gather your grain, is talking about a scenario where the Jews are NOT following the will of Hashem. If we were following the will of Hashem, explains the gemara, the goyim would be gathering our grain for us and we would be able to relax [with a gemara of course:-)].

Tosfos and everybody's mother goes bonkers on this gemara. How can this pasuk be talking about a case where the Jews aren't following the will of Hashem when the parsha oh-so-explicitly-begins והיה אם שמוע תשמעו אל מצותי - When you follow my mitzvos.....

A bomb!

But the gemara knew how the parsha began and yet insisted that it is talking about a case where we are not following the will of Hashem. So what is the explanation?

One answer given [see Tosfos and the Maharasha] is that yes, indeed, we are following the will of Hashem but to a limited extent. In the first paragraph of Shema it says בכל לבבך ובכל נפשך ובכל מאדך - Love Hashem with all of your heart, soul and means. In the second paragraph it says בכל לבבכם ובכל נפשכם - With all of your heart and soul. Hey! Where did בכל מאדך go? The answer is that we are talking about a limited love. People are willing to give up certain yetzer hara's for Hashem [בכל לבבך - בשני יצריך], people are even willing to give up their lives for Hashem [בכל נפשך - אפילו נוטל את נפשך] but people are not willing to give up their money for Hashem. בכל מאדך is talking about money. When people aren't willing to give up their money for Hashem they can't be considered as if they are fully serving Hashem as required.

Thus, ואספת דגנך is indeed referring to a case where we are not serving Hashem and therefore we must do our own work and it will not be done for us.

Scary.

How do we get so many [but not all] people to uproot their lifelong passion for money and their inability to part with it when necessary?

I don't know. I really don't know.

I think it would be easier to rationally convince a bee to stop buzzing.