Our Efforts Always Bear Fruit

The Alter Zutshka Rebbe teaches, based on the pasuk in Parshas Eikev, that the Jewish people are a holy nation, and that when it comes to avodas Hashem our efforts always bear fruit. Each of us is a sapling, lovingly planted and tended by Hashem, so that we can blossom and bear sweet fruits. The Torah, mitzvos and good deeds that sprout forth are all so that Hashem can take pride in us and our efforts. Therefore Hashem blesses us that none of us will be, Heaven forbid, barren, and that all our efforts in avodas Hashem will bear fruit and succeed. This refers not only to Torah study and mitzvah observance but also to giving birth and producing offspring. Included in this is the fertility of our animals and livestock, an allusion to the animalistic aspects of living, all that is physical, worldly and mundane. Material pursuits such as eating, drinking and sleeping should also not be barren. When we engage in mundane matters they should be le'shem shomayim (for the sake of Heaven), filled with intention. In that way they take root on High and bear fruit down here below. The pasuk continues with the promise that Hashem will remove all illness from us. This comes about naturally from being connected in full dveykus to avodas Hashem. When all our efforts, whether physical or spiritual, are directed toward giving satisfaction and nachas to our King, health comes automatically, since we need to be healthy, whole and serene to serve Him properly. The fruit borne in the higher worlds through our immersion in avodas Hashem removes the illness that would impede that avodah. Being so firmly rooted in the higher worlds through our actions and their accompanying intentions, there is no need for the refinement usually brought about through pain or suffering, since the matters we engage in themselves purify and refine us. In such a state of connection we are promised that "all of the evil diseases of Egypt which you knew, He will not set upon you," and even further, "He will lay them upon all your enemies." Then the pasuk will be fulfilled: "I have given Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in your stead" (Yeshaya 43:3). They will suffer our pains instead of us.