One of the most well-known of the harsh verses concerning the covenant in our parsha is the verse which presents us with the "barter" made by the errant person who chooses not to go in the path of good: "Since you did not serve HaShem your Lord out of joy and goodness of heart from abundance of everything, and you will serve your enemies which HaShem will send upon you, in hunger and thirst and nakedness and deprivation of all."
 

From this verse, our Rabbis learned that it is not only the entire nation which is liable to face these consequences, but the individual as well, as the Rambam famously says in Hilchot Succah (ch. 8 Halacha 15): "The joy with which one rejoices over the performance of a Mitzvah and the love of HaShem who commanded them is a great service, and anyone who refrains from this rejoicing deserves to be punished, as it says: "Since you did not serve HaShem your Lord out of joy and goodness of heart."
 

Indeed, the second part of this verse: "and you will serve your enemies" seems only to be relevant on the national scale, and not as consequence to an individual who chooses not to serve HaShem.
 

However, a closer look at this verse will allow us to draw from it a fundamental understanding, which is applicable to every person in every generation, even to one who is fortunate enough to be in Eretz Israel at the time when the light of the redemption shines and radiates upon the nation of HaShem in His Land.

The commentators explain the verse "when you will go out to war against your enemies" thus: the Torah is speaking about the war against Yetzer Hara (the evil inclination) which is a man's enemy (as we see in the Gemara [Succah 52] that one of the names of the evil inclination is "your enemy"). According to this, we can interpret our verse as well regarding the consequences which can result for the person who turns his back on Avodat Hashem – "and you will serve your enemies which HaShem will send upon you" – the enemy is the evil inclination, and as the Gemara says regarding the verse "no alien god shall be within you" (Tehillim 81:10) – what is a foreign god which is within a man's body? The answer is: this is Yetzer HaRa. (Shabbat 105b)
 

According to this, the verse teaches us a fundamental truth: indeed man has free choice, but in contrast to the commonly accepted misconception that a man can choose to accept the yoke of Torah or be a 'ben bliya'al' (literally: an evil, immoral person; phonetically bliya'al = 'bli ol' meaning without a yoke) – free to do whatever he desires - this is not entirely true. "A man is born to labor." He cannot choose whether or not there will be a yoke upon him, but he can only choose which yoke will be upon him. This is articulated in Pirkei Avot (3,5): "Rabbi Nehunya Ben HaKaneh says: Whoever accepts upon himself the yoke of Torah, the yoke of the kingdom and the yoke of Derech Eretz (subsistence) is removed from him. And whoever casts off the yoke of Torah, the yoke of the kingdom and the yoke of Derech Eretz is placed upon him."

One who casts off the yoke of Torah, even at a time when the yoke of the kingdom is not placed upon him, the yoke of Derech Eretz still is (in the form of pursuing earthly desires). A person like this becomes a servant to his enemy within, a submissive slave to his whims and passions.

Furthermore, the same Rabbi Nehunya Ben HaKaneh teaches us in his famous prayer: "We labor and they labor. We labor and receive payment (we gain an advantage), and they labor and do not receive payment." This is because the terrible servitude to the Yetzer, the enemy which is sent against one who casts off the yoke of Torah, is always "in hunger and thirst and nakedness and deprivation of all." As this is the nature of the evil inclination: "if you satisfy it – it is hungry."
 

And as the Ramban interprets the verse (Devarim 29:18) "In order to add the quenched (sins) to the thirsty ones.": When a small amount of desire enters one's heart, and he satisfies his desire, then his soul will crave for more and will be very thirsty for that which he ate or did, more than the first time, and it will crave more and evil things which it did not crave for at first… and as the Sages said (Succah 52b): when one satisfies it, it is hungry, and when one starves it, it is satisfied. And therefore the Torah says about the man who acts according to the obstinacy of his heart, that if he will satisfy his soul's stubborn and powerful desires, meaning those which his soul thirsts for, then his quenched soul will add desires to the thirsty ones, since it will crave and thirst for that regarding which it was satisfied."
 

And as the prophet Yirmiyahu said: "They abandoned Me, the source of the waters of life, to dig themselves pits – broken pits which cannot hold water."
 

In contrast, the service of HaShem is by its nature service "out of joy and goodness of heart from abundance of everything" and as Yaakov Avinu said to the wicked Esav: "I have all." The more one strengthens himself and is faithful to Avodat HaShem, correspondently the sense of joy and goodness of heart will intensify, and so will the feeling that "I have all."

This is the choice which the Torah gives every person: Know that you do not have a choice whether to labor or not, but only which yoke to take upon yourself – the yoke of Torah which leads one to joy and goodness of heart – "if you do so, you will be happy in this world and it will be good for you in the next world." The other choice is the yoke of the kingdom and Derech Eretz: the more one dedicates himself to serving it, the more he will find himself "in hunger and thirst, naked and deprived of all."
 

This understanding has the power and purpose, first and foremost, to encourage us to stand firm in the war against the Yetzer, and to make the correct choice between life and good, or the opposite of them. Additionally, it serves to motivate us to increase our efforts to "seek our brothers." Indeed, even these days we have complications and difficulties, but nevertheless we must put these in proportion and take a broad outlook: In addition to the unprecedented rebirth in Torah and spirituality, we have the good fortune to be living at a time which is perhaps the best one for Am Israel in the last thousands of years in terms of economy, security, health, national strength and solidification, etc. And in spite of all of this, many people in Am Israel live in with a deep sense of total darkness, complete destruction: everything is bad, everything is indescribably terrible. "Hunger and thirst, nakedness and deprivation of all." Exactly as HaRav Kook describes these things and their consequences in a truly haunting portrayal in Orot HaTeshuva (8, 3-5):
 

"Every sin causes the heart to grieve… and because of this, those whose souls are evil to the core, and the source of all their sins is rooted in their mindsets, aspirations and character traits, their outlook is negative and they see the entire world in such a black color to the point that it has no purpose. They are the ones who resent the world and life itself, they are overwhelmed by melancholy, and their mockery of all creation is the laughter of the fool who does not have the sense to understand that 'HaShem is good to all.'

What is the source of the rage of the wicked? What is the fury against the entire world? What is the foundation of the bitter misery which consumes the spirit and the flesh, and fills their life with venom? From where does this source of destruction emanate? With clear, inner confidence we answer: This springs from the source of evil… it brings on many pains, and when it penetrates into the spirit – the sufferings it causes are intense, as they appear in the form of atrocity, rage, insolence, disgrace and despair.
 

And therefore, the Tzaddikim, the men of the bliss of life, call to the miserable wicked people: Come and live! Return, return from your evil ways, and why should you die?
Delight in HaShem's goodness, and behold a life of pleasure and light, of peace and tranquil quiet, of trust and honor. "Like dew from HaShem, as raindrops on grass."

…And therefore the Tzaddikim perpetually long for the Teshuva of the multitudes, and within their hearts they pursue the bringing of merit to the guilty as one pursues life, for in reality it is our life and the life of all the worlds."
 

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