“Do not fear, Avraham, I am a shield for you; your reward is very great” (Bereishit 15:1)
“And it will be that if you listen to My commandments that I command you today, to love Hashem, your G-d, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, then I shall give the rains in your Land in its proper time, the early and the late rains, and you shall gather in your grain, your wine, and your oil. I shall provide grass in your field for your cattle, and you will eat and you will be satisfied. Beware for yourselves, lest your heart be seduced and you turn astray and worship gods of others and bow down to them. Then the wrath of Hashem will be turned against you; He will restrain the heaven and there will be no rain, and the ground will not yield its produce; and you will quickly perish from the goodly Land that Hashem gives you” ^(Devarim 11:13-17)
“Say to the righteous man that it is good; for they shall eat the fruit of their actions” (Yeshayahu 3:10)
The Midrash (Sifra, Bechukotai 2) elucidates the phrase And I will turn toward you with the following parable. A king hired a staff of workers. One specific worker worked much longer than the others. When the time came for the workers to collect their wages, the king called this worker aside and told him, “The other workers worked relatively short hours. They will receive a minimal salary. But you deserve a much larger salary, which I am reserving for you for a later time.”
In this world, Bnei Yisrael request their due rewards from Hashem. The nations of the world, too, approach Him for reward. What does Hashem tell His nation? “My son, wait a bit. The gentiles did relatively small jobs for Me. I will pay them their dues and send them on their way. But you have a large account with Me. I will repay you handsomely for your work.”
The Gemara relates an interesting exchange between Rebbi and Antoninus (Sanhedrin 91b): Antoninus told Rebbi, “Both body and soul can evade retribution. How so? The body says, ‘It was the soul that sinned, for since the day it left me, I have been like a lifeless stone in the grave.’ And the soul claims, ‘It was the body that sinned. For since the day it left me, I have hovered in the air like a bird.’”
Rebbi offered an analogy to explain the matter: A king had a lovely garden with tantalizing fruits. He placed two guards at its entrance; one was crippled, and the other was blind. The cripple turned to the blind man and said, “I see a beautiful orchard of fine fruits before me. Let me ride on your back, and I will pick them off for both of us to enjoy.” That was what they did. Later, the king visited his orchard. Imagine his chagrin at finding a vandalized field. “Where are all my wonderful fruits?” he accused the two. The cripple spoke first, “Do I have feet to get me anywhere? How could I possibly have taken the fruits?!” Then the blind man spoke, “Do I have eyes to see the fruits? I am surely innocent!” What did the king do? He placed the cripple on the back of the blind man and judged them as one.
This is the case with a person on his day of judgment. Hashem places his neshamah inside his body and judges them as one. This is alluded to in Tehillim (50:4), “He will call to the heavens above and to the earth to avenge His people.” The heavens above refers to the neshamah; and to the earth refers to the body.
A fundamental principle of our faith is to believe in the justice of Hashem’s judgments. One must have perfect faith that he will be repaid according to his deeds, for better or for worse. One’s mazal cannot spare him from the strict hand of justice. Nonetheless, there can be an instance in which a person is not worthy of being cleansed of his sin by means of punishment. This, too, is considered a form of punishment. He is being penalized instead of being given the opportunity to rectify his misdeeds. But it is not called by the name punishment, since he is not worthy of being punished (Beit Habechirah LaMeiri, Sota 2a).
