The Torah states that if you carry out the mitzvot then you will be blessed with a good economy. The meaning of this is that the wealth is spread by the businessman hiring people to increase his earnings and paying the employee a decent salary so that all benefit.
The Torah draws out a very important point about Parashat Behar-Bechukotai: the Torah’s blessings are not merely “rewards” in a simplistic sense, but the natural result of building a healthy and just society.
A few especially strong themes emerge from:
- In Book of Leviticus the Torah links morality, economics, and national stability together. The Sabbatical and Jubilee years prevent society from calcifying into permanent classes of rich and poor. The Torah is trying to preserve mobility, dignity, and social cohesion.
- Capitalism is important and nuanced. The Torah is not advocating forced equality; rather, it recognizes that investment, entrepreneurship, and productive labor create prosperity for everyone. A successful businessman hiring workers is not merely enriching himself — he is creating livelihoods, commerce, and stability for the broader society.
- An example from the post–American Civil War South illustrates how reliability, discipline, and willingness to work become forms of economic capital. Employers valued workers who could help businesses succeed, and once a worker proved valuable, market competition itself encouraged better wages and stability. That cycle strengthened entire communities.
- This also connects this beautifully to modern Israel. A strong economy is not separate from national defense; it is part of national defense. During wartime, military strength depends on factories, technology, commerce, reserves, and public confidence. The Torah’s promise of security is therefore deeply practical: a united and productive society can withstand enormous pressures.
- The same was true during World War II. The Allied victory depended not only on soldiers, but on industrial production, logistics, and economic resilience. The “arsenal of democracy” mattered because economic strength sustains military strength.
What makes this especially compelling is that it avoids viewing the blessings as magical. “Rains in their season” symbolizes a society functioning properly — economically, morally, socially, and spiritually. When people trust one another, invest in one another, and act ethically, society becomes stable and prosperous. When exploitation, division, and selfishness dominate, the opposite occurs.
So the Torah’s message is:
If you build a just society, the blessings follow naturally.
Something very worthwhile to think about.
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