Working Instead of Complaining

Insight of the Week

There is a halachah which, at first glance, does not seem to have any practical relevance to us, but in truth, as the Vilna Gaon explained, conveys a vitally important lesson for each and every person. The halachah addresses the situation of a person who owns a field that is surrounded by other fields on all four sides. If the owner of one of the four adjacent fields decides to erect a wall between his field and the middle field, he cannot legally demand that the owner of the middle field share the expenses. Since it was his decision to build the fence, he cannot force the owner of the field in the middle to pay for part of the wall. The same is true if the owners of two of the other fields build fences. Even the owner of the middle field benefits from these three fences, which separate between his field and three of the four adjacent fields, he does not have to pay, since the owners of the other fields decided on their own to build the fences. However, if this fellow now decides to erect a fence on the fourth side so that his field will be completely protected, then the owners of the other three fences can now come back to him and demand that he pay his fair share for those three fences. The reason is that by fencing in the fourth side, the owner of the middle field shows that he is happy with having these fences built, that he wants his field to be protected on all sides. And once he demonstrates that he wants these walls, he is obligated to help pay for them. The Vilna Gaon pointed to this halachah as a symbolic expression of a very common phenomenon. The vast majority of us complain about the “walls” that go up around us. We complain about our spouse, our kids, our schools, our shuls, our rabbis, our political leaders, our neighbors, and so many other things. We talk about how terrible these “walls” are, how difficult and unhappy a life we have. But that all changes once the “fourth wall” goes up – when we go through some kind of scare. When we feel that our life is threatened, such as if we face a medical issue, Heaven forbid, we all of a sudden realize how much we want these “walls,” how much we love our life and do not wish for it to end. Instead of complaining about the “walls,” about the things in our lives which aren’t quite right, we should be focusing on growing and being the best version of ourselves. Blaming other people or circumstances is never going to help us. What will help us is putting in the work to make ourselves and our lives better. Parashat Behukotai begins with Hashem’s promises of great reward for observing the mitzvot . Hashem assures us that we will receive these blessings אם בחוקותי תלכו ואת מצוותי תשמרו – “If you follow My statutes, and observe My commands.” Rashi famously explains that these two phrases – אם בחוקותי תלכו and ואת מצוותי תשמרו – refers to two different things. The second ( ואת מצוותי תשמרו ) refers to fulfilling the mitzvot , but the first ( אם בחוקותי תלכו ) means שתהיו עמלים בתורה – that we “toil in Torah.” Only if we do both – fulfill the mitzvot and “toil in Torah” – will we be deserving of these great rewards. It isn’t enough to learn Torah; we have to “toil,” and invest hark work and effort. Complaining is the opposite of עמלות , of hard work. We complain so that we can blame other people and other things for our problems and our failures, such that we don’t have to bother doing anything about it, since it’s all someone else’s fault. We can just sit back and complain, instead of working. שתהיו עמלים בתורה means that we need to work, not complain. We need to accept the reality the way it is, and work to make ourselves better. If we can make this shift in our mindset, we will unlock so much of our power, so much of our inner potential, and we will achieve far more than we ever imagined we could.