Does God Bribe Us?

Parashas BaChukosai, Sefer VaYikra

Reward and punishment are funny ideas when you try to apply them to God. You see, reward and punishment are ways of manipulating people to do what you want. Think lab rats. If they go to the right, they get zapped. If they go to the left, tasty rat kibble. Do we think of God in such immature terms?

Torah defines the concept of God as the omnipotent, omniscient, loving Source of everything. By “everything”, Torah really does mean everything. Anything you can think of, God made it. Some people like to play a cute little game called “Who Made God?” but they always lose. The Judaic definition of God means that God created the idea of creation. So much for that.

Anyway, it’s very strange to apply the idea of reward and punishment to such a Being. Why would God manipulate anybody? His creation of you, me, and the entirety of the universe we live in took place free of charge – He needs nothing. He created “need”.

As such, although we have no ability to grasp who or what He is, the closest we can come to recognizing Him is as a giver. He gave us life, flowers, the nuclear strong force, kiwis and sunsets with no strings attached. It would be impossible to have any strings attached for G-d. Again, He doesn’t need anything.

So why does He offer us reward in return for keeping His commandments?

Is This Love?

The question gets even stranger when you consider the Jewish value system. Sechar and onesh are some of the central tenets of the Judaic perception of reality. A quick flip through the Chumash (Pentateuch) and Nevi’im (Prophets) displays the concept on almost every page. Yet the western definitions of reward and punishment – manipulative bribery and retaliation – are not particularly congruent with Judaic values.

Rather, Judaism explains that we were created in order to develop and enjoy the most extraordinary relationship humanly possible, a relationship with God Himself. That is what Torah is for.

This relationship encompasses and includes all our other relationships, all our possessions, and indeed every element of our lives. Grab a minute to look up from the computer screen and take in your surroundings with those eyes. It’s a thrill, isn’t it?

Because an amazing relationship is never fifty-fifty. An amazing relationship is 100-100. In an amazing relationship, both partners give their one hundred percent to care for, honor, support, and delight their beloved. Anything less isn’t love; it’s business. If you wanted business, you would go to a job placement agency, not stand under a chuppa.

Cutting a deal – “I’ll scratch your back if you’ll scratch mine” – leaves us jaded. The truth about relationships is that we are not deeply fulfilled by taking. We are deeply fulfilled by giving. We want to love another so much that every time we see him or her it feels like the sun rising inside our chests. We want to feel inspired and virtuous and present. Having our love reciprocated in kind is only an affirmation of how fulfilling it feels to be a giver, a connector.

Yet picture this: A friend of yours sits down on the couch with you and says, “Do you care about me? Because I need you to do something for our relationship, but I only want you to do it out of real caring. Otherwise, it isn’t really real.”

You love your friend, so you say yes, of course you’ll do whatever he needs of you. But then he adds a strange rejoinder, “And by the way, I’ll pay you fifty thousand dollars. But don’t do it for the money…”

Strange, right? Even stranger:

“Be not like servants who serve their master for the sake of receiving a reward; instead be like servants who serve their master not for the sake of receiving a reward. And let the awe of heaven be upon you.” (Pirkei Avos 1:3)

In light of the Jewish value system of giving and connection, why does God offer us a reward for what ought to be done out of unconditional love?

Telling It Like It Is

So far we have seen that God is not trying to manipulate us for His own needs because He doesn’t have needs. We have also seen that the Jewish value system does not support doing mitzvos out of a desire to selfishly accrue stars on some sort of childish heavenly sticker chart. In short, He isn’t trying to manipulate us and He wouldn’t want us to serve Him out of manipulation anyway.

We are left with an odd but inevitable conclusion: God promises us reward just because He wants to give. Imagine that! He likes you! He’s looking for any excuse to bring you a dozen roses.

But on a deeper level, the concept of reward for mitzvos is an existential truth. As we perform His will, we become more and more capable of receiving His love. It just so happens that receiving His love feels very, very good. Were you to experience all the pleasures this world has to offer throughout the entirety of space and time, all compacted into one severely exquisite moment, you would probably feel so electrified that you would lose consciousness – but it still wouldn’t come close to the pleasure of what it will feel like to directly experience intimacy with God in Olam HaBa (the World to Come).

He promises to reward us because that is the truth. He’s just telling it like it is: “A God of faith without iniquity, righteous and fair is He.” (Devarim-Deuteronomy 32:4)

Making Great Even Greater

The benefits of mitzvos in both this world and the next are unbelievable. In this world, consequences for doing the right thing usually mean that you will receive further resources to do more and better of the right thing. For example, give tzedaka – get more money. Use your body properly – enjoy good health. The Torah repeats predictions like this again and again:

“It will be that if you hearken to My commandments that I command you today, to love Hashem, your God, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, then I shall provide rain for your land in its proper time...that you may gather in your grain, your wine, and your oil…and you will eat and you will be satisfied.” (ibid 11:13-15)

“If you will follow My decrees and observe My commandments and perform them; then I will provide your rains in their time, and the land will give its produce and the tree of the field will give its fruit… You will eat your bread to satiety and you will dwell securely in the land. I will provide peace in the land, and you will lie down with none to frighten you…” (VaYikra-Leviticus 26:3-6)

Of course, this-worldly consequences are not cut and dry because this world is for growth, not reward. This world is not the last stop on the train. This world is called the prozdor, the corridor, leading to the traklin, the palace. We are just passing through, and whatever needs to happen in this world to help us best develop our potentials for enjoyment of the next world is what will take place.

But in the next world? You think it’s your pleasure? Believe me, it’s His pleasure. And all He wants to do, no strings attached, is to share it with you. It really is beautiful.

Using the Carrot

The big concern about the heavenly reward issue is that it could be a distraction from the altruism we are supposed to be growing in to. Promises of infinitely more than fifty thousand dollars could make a person feel a little selfish, a little taavadig, yes?

Herein lies one of the juiciest secrets of Torah. We are meant to be in this world, but not of it. We are meant to elevate material reality, yet not be dragged down by it. We are meant to involve ourselves in various physical pursuits in order to serve God with them, yet not become enslaved by them. We are meant to be the rider, not the horse.

God’s dual promise and challenge of pleasurable reward shows us that we can. We can use our selfish interests as motivation but not purpose. We can get in on God’s game and use promises of reward as a carrot to dangle in front of our bodies’ noses, leading ourselves to do what is good and right, all the while knowing that our true purpose is not selfish pleasure, but the selfless pleasure of altruistic, unconditional giving, connection, and love.

God is nothing if not clever. As much as He promises us reward because He wants to give, and because receiving reward for mitzvos is an existential truth, He also promises us reward in order to bait us to make good choices despite ourselves. But the objective is not to stay baited. The real opportunity in the heavenly-reward conundrum is to join Him in baiting ourselves. To cross over to the other side of the line and be like God.

Mitzvos L’Shma

Pirkei Avos promises that doing mitzvos lo l’shma, for selfish motivations, leads to doing them l’shma, for their own sake. In other words, the Torah endorses bribing yourself to do the right thing.

Yet our sages explain that this promise only works when one is doing mitzvos lo l’shma in order to reach l’shma. One may use superficial, selfish motivations – money, candy, promises of infinite heavenly pleasure – but only in order to eventually come to a place where one does not need those impetuses.

Your heart has to be in the right place. The objective must be to eventually become motivated by love of God alone. What is it that you really want, the candy or the connection with God? If what you really want is the candy, don’t bother. You’re not fooling anyone. But if what you really want is the connection with God, and you’re just using the candy as a crutch, go ahead and use the candy to motivate your mitzvos. You’re only human and growth takes a lifetime. As long as it is growth that you are aiming for.

We can do it. We can dive into our relationships with our loved ones, especially HaKadosh Baruch Hu, with one hundred percent commitment. We can do mitzvos not selfishly, in order to get reward, but with genuine love, just because we want to make Him happy.

Even if we need to use a carrot to lead ourselves on sometimes, we can keep the true yearnings of our hearts focused on Avinu Shebashamayim (our Father in heaven). We can become tzadikim and it can feel great.

Written for www.ArachimUSA.org