Written Notes:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kcre008k48ypvxo/31.%20VaEschanan%205778%20%20-How%20To%20Earn%20Grace.pdf?dl=0
Earned Grace?!
The title of this class, “How to Earn G-d’s Grace” is seemingly an impossible paradox. Why so? Well, let’s look up the definition of Grace.
grace
ɡrās/
noun
2. the free and unmerited favor of G-d
You see, the whole point of grace is that it is free and unmerited, which is another way of saying unearned. In other words, if you earned it, it isn’t grace, but a reward or payment for what you earned. G-d promises us (-Leviticus 26:3-4), “If in My statutes you shall walk and My commandments you will observe, and you shall perform them, I will give your rains in their time, the Land will yield its produce, and the tree of the field will give forth its fruit…” Thus, creating a cause and effect relationship with us. This relationship does not entail Grace within it. Grace is specifically a free, unmerited and unearned favor of G-d.
However, the verse tells us (-Job 14:15), “You desire the work of your hands,” which is also interpreted to mean, (-Mishna, Baba Metziah Chapter 3, Mishna 6), “A man wants one measurement of his own, rather than, nine measurements of his friend.” Our sages tell us that before G-d created the cause and effect for us, by giving us the Torah and its commandments through which we can earn G-d’s blessings, we were living from Bread of Shame, meaning unearned. Thus, there is a shame in receiving even G-d’s grace, for it is within our G-d-given nature to view such as the Bread of Shame, to be eaten with a feeling of shame, rather than, with self-respect.
My friends, every time we live off of the grace of others, we may believe that we feel like a ‘winner,’ however, our human-ness knows better and we have lost our reflection of being in G-d’s, “Image and likeness.” It is for this reason that G-d’s ultimate grace is that even in receiving G-d’s grace, we are yet able to earn it.
Grace with Self-respect
Well, back to the impossible paradox, if we earn it then it isn’t grace, and if it is grace then we didn’t earn it. The Rebbe, explains (d”h Hashomayim Kisee, 57--, footnote #?) it as follows: There is to actively earn something, and there is to remove the obstacle from receiving something. To earn something is to live in a cause and effect relationship with G-d. For the cause action we did earned us (created the divinity flow) the blessing that we receive. However, to remove the obstacle from receiving from G-d is not that we earned the divinity flow. That, G-d is giving us freely. Only that we unblocked ourselves from receiving that which G-d is giving us freely.
What blockage from receiving G-d’s grace do we have to remove?
Rav Ḥisda says, and some say that Mar Ukva says: Concerning any person who has arrogance within him, the Holy One, Blessed be He, said: He and I cannot dwell together in the world, as it is stated: “He who slanders his neighbor in secret, him will I destroy; he who is haughty of eye and proud of heart, him will I not suffer [oto lo ukhal]” (-Psalms 101:5). This verse should be understood as follows: Do not read the verse as: “Oto lo ukhal”; rather, read it as: Itto lo ukhal, meaning, with him, I cannot bear to dwell. -Talmud, Sotah 5a
By the act of removing our ego, we are able to have self-respect even in receiving G-d’s grace, for even though we have not earned G-d’s grace, we are still within the self-respect of, “You desire the work of your hands,” by removing our blockage from receiving G-d’s grace. Thus, we have the best of both worlds, by receiving G-d’s infinite grace, rather than, our finite earned rewards, and nevertheless, we can receive G-d’s grace with self-respect, by diligently working on removing our ego.
In this lecture, based on a maamor delivered by the Rebbe in 1985, we are going to learn what the true definition of G-d’s Grace is, and how we are to practically live within it with earned self-respect.
