Remember the Eternal your God, for it is God who gives you power to get wealth, so that God may confirm the covenant sworn to your ancestors, as God is doing today.
–Deuteronomy 8:18
It seems to be human nature to give ourselves primary credit for wealth and prosperity. When a person has worked hard and for many years to reach a place of security, it is only natural take credit for all that work. Parashat Ekev warns us never to forget that no matter how well we have done, humility still applies.
The word usually translated “wealth” In Deuteronomy 8:18 is “Chayil,” the same word we know from Eshet Chayil, the song written out in Proverbs 31, usually translated “A Woman of Valor.” Brown Driver Briggs, the major dictionary for Biblical Hebrew, offers a four part definition of chayil: “strength, efficiency, wealth, army.” If it is strength, it is strength is like that of an army, like that of the woman in Proverbs 31: interconnected, efficient, valorous.
The choice of words in this week’s Torah portion reminds us that whatever wealth we have is not simply our own doing, but the result of a complex mix of effort, energy, valor, persistence, and good fortune – all from God, and interconnected with other human beings, as well.
An entrepreneur works hard for success. Making a business go requires long hours and great risk. But it also requires other factors, interconnections to others. A physical location for business requires roads to reach it, water and sewage, power lines and other businesses to serve it. We may pay for those services, but unless we are on a desert island, we do not have to dig wells for water, build roads for service, pipe the sewage away, and build a power plant! We can call the police or the fire department; we do not have to invent them.
And face it, luck is also a factor. Smart people sometimes bring businesses into being, only to be hit with a stroke of bad luck: a drought, a recession, a change in tastes, an accident, and then instead of wealth, they have nothing but debt.
Opportunity is not equal anywhere in this life. Some people prosper either through their own effort or by inherited advantage. Others never get a chance.
Many people work hard all their lives and have little to show, even though they have done nothing wrong. Others through no fault of their own are disabled by physical or mental illness and are unable to work. We must hold any goods we have with humility.
a good dose of humility goes a long ways!