Our Talmudic Sages have taught us a lesson in contrasts. In last week’s Torah portion, Abraham offers his guests a little bread to sate their hunger and then proceeds to give them a lavish feast fit for a king. This teaches us how we should “promise a little and do a lot.”
By contrast, in this week’s parsha, Efron graciously offers to give Abraham the plot that he wished to purchase for the burial of his wife Sarah without remuneration. And, in the end, he asks for an exorbitant amount. Once more, our Sages declare, that we should not be like Efron who promises a lot and does very little.
One can raise the obvious question: What is wrong with just promising whatever one wishes to promise and keeping it? Not more or less. Why does it have to go from one extreme (Efron’s) to the other (Abraham’s)?
On the surface one could suggest that the desirability of making modest promises is based on considerations of modesty. Since mere words don’t actually help anyone, why should one advertise their magnanimity. It can be misconstrued as bragging. However, it is more plausible to suggest that there is some intrinsic value to “promising a little and doing a lot” beyond the dictate of humility.
To understand the value of always doing more than what one promised, we should refer to the Talmudic principle that we highlight during the upcoming festival of Chanukah: “Ma’alin bakodsesh, one must always ascend in matters of holiness.” Implicit in this principle is the notion that a human being ought not stay on one level, specifically, with respect to matters of holiness. Every human being has ambition; some more and some less. But what separates us from all other of G-d’s creatures is the desire to grow, health wise, financially, emotionally and intellectually.
Why do we have this desire? What is wrong with staying on one level?
The answer lies in a better understanding of our inner dynamics. We—as all other creations—are finite beings. But we were all created and continue to be created by an infinite G-d.
However, while the Divine spark within all other creatures is securely ensconced within the creation, we were created with an “anomaly.” Our Divine spark—that we refer to as our soul and is a part of the infinite G-d—can never be fully contained. Some people frequently feel their soul’s invitation to them to reach greater spiritual heights. In others, the spark that is felt sporadically jolts them to seek more out of, at least, some aspect of life.
The common denominator in all humans is that they are driven by an inner force that is reflective of the infinite nature of G-d. When the soul voice resonates within our psyche, we hear its message and it reads as follows: “While ambition is good in all of the important aspects of life, the one area that is truly what I, the soul, is looking for, is spiritual growth.
For those whose inner soul’s voice is muffled, they will feel only the urge to be ambitious. The bad news is that they will inevitably come to the realization that their ambition is not really making their lives more meaningful, because it is not consistent with the soul’s real reason for having this ambition in the first place. Once this realization sets in, the individual will frequently experience feelings of depression and begin to regress
The good news for these ambitious people, however, is that as long as there is life there is hope. A person who loses the desire to grow in any area will hardly search for growth in the area that counts the most. Once we have ambition, however, we can steer it in the right direction.
We can now understand why it is so important to follow the example of Abraham and “promise a little and do a lot,” rather than to simply promise much and keep the promise. The idea is not just to make modest promises, so as to not sound conceited, but it is our way of appreciating the need for continual growth.
The amount one begins with is not as important as the ability to make a quantum leap to a higher level. As with regard to the lights of Chanukah, the fact that we go from one candle to two the next night, and so on, is more powerful than if we would have kindled all eight candles each of the eight nights of Chanukah. To light eight lights nightly would be great, but to start with one and to continually increase the number of candles is to flirt with infinity.
Whereas in the present day and age we experience intermittent spurts of growth and a taste of infinity, in the future Messianic Age infinite growth will become an integral part of our lives. Whatever constraints that life in exile places on our ability to truly experience the infinite nature of G-d, will be removed in the future Redemption.