07/31/2026
Can spiritual health be measured by our capacity for ambivalence?
This week’s parsha offers a surprising perspective on gratitude, success, and our relationship with God. I’d love to hear your thoughts after you read.
Shabbat Shalom!
The Virtue of Spiritual Ambivalence
In this week’s Torah portion, Moshe makes it a priority to remind us of our dependence on God. It is easy to express gratitude when we feel vulnerable, but our awareness of that vulnerability can fade when we are surrounded by abundance. Prosperity has a way of dulling our sense of dependence. In its place, two attitudes can quietly poison the heart.
The first is the belief that we have earned our blessings entirely through our own efforts. This is a denial of God’s providence.
The second is more subtle. We acknowledge that God is essential to our success, yet we come to believe that we are entitled to His blessings, that we deserve them. This is the poison of spiritual entitlement.
Judaism wisely resists offering neat and tidy explanations for why there is evil and suffering in the world. We cannot claim to know with certainty why one person suffers while another prospers. Yet the people who believe with certainty that they deserve God’s blessings fall into a similar error. Just as we cannot presume to understand why God permits suffering, neither can we presume to know that we are worthy of prosperity. Both claims assume a perspective that belongs to God alone.
This is not to deny that people can live lives of genuine righteousness or that God rewards goodness. But certainty that our righteousness guarantees blessing subtly transforms our relationship with God into a transaction. Closeness to Him becomes a means to material success rather than an end in itself. Worse still, certainty about our own spiritual standing leaves little room for humility, self-examination, or growth.
Perhaps this is why Maimonides, in his Laws of Repentance, teaches that we should always view ourselves as perfectly balanced between merit and deficiency, as though a single action could tip the scales. Healthy spiritual life requires a measure of ambivalence. It is not paralysis or insecurity, but the humility to recognize that there is always more to become.
Especially now, at this moment in Jewish history, as Israel and the Jewish people face enemies both in our homeland and around the world, may we never allow blessing to give way to entitlement. Instead, may we continue striving, with humility, gratitude, and hope, to draw closer to one another and to God.
