Unfinished Business
There is a value placed on completing a task, seeing something through to the end and possibly reaping the benefits. Many times in the Torah, the need for such completion is emphasized along with the consequences of being true to the instructions given through Moses. The mitzvot to be guarded and done.
As a countercurrent to this focus on the end, though, is that salient feature of the life of Moses is what is left undone, most notably the ending of his story on a mountain overlooking the yet to be reached . Unlike a hero of myth, an archetype of one who undertakes a journey through travail and self-discovery that ends with a triumphant return, Moses sets forth into the wilderness and neither comes back to the land of his origin nor enters the land promised him and his people.
However, rather than seeing Moses' story as a disappointing exception highlighting the goal of pushing through to the finish, the Torah presents alongside its instructions a valuing of living an open ended life. In the Torah portion for this week, Ekev, the unexpected comparison is between the Land of Israel and Egypt, a land that flows with the life-giving waters of the Nile. Yes, it is Egypt that flows with bounty and Israel that only receives its waters from the sky and thus lies in danger of drought or famine. And so it is in Egypt that one need to merely plant and work to see success while Israel G*d’s favor of rain is required.
Another way of looking at the comparison with Egypt is that in Egypt a task can be finished and the benefit can be reaped according to the work that is done. While in the Land of Israel the value is placed not on the goal but the work of following the Torah’s path. The success of crops, life sustaining as they may be, is secondary to the always unfolding relationship with the One who causes the rain in its season.
The Torah depicts this relationship in poetic words saying about the Land of Israel
אֶ֕רֶץ אֲשֶׁר־יְהֹוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֶ֖יךָ דֹּרֵ֣שׁ אֹתָ֑הּ תָּמִ֗יד עֵינֵ֨י יְהֹו אֱלֹהֶ֙יךָ֙ בָּ֔הּ מֵֽרֵשִׁית֙ הַשָּׁנָ֔ה וְעַ֖ד אַחֲרִ֥ית שָׁנָֽה׃ {ס}
It is a land which your God יהוה looks after, on which your God יהוה always keeps an eye, from year’s beginning to year’s end.
This eye is not the eye of judgment meting out the rewards and penalties that are referred to many times The eye of G*d is one that looks upon, that dotes and desired the well-being of the land at all times, every moment of the year.
The Land of Israel is a disruption of certainty and completion. Whereas Egypt was a place of finite tasks, Israel is the land of eternity. The Land of Israel teaches that our relationship with G*d is not a to-do list but an open ended relationship, an undertaking ever unfinished.