Letters Jan. 2026

Rabbi Moshe Ben-Chaim

Are we Judged for All We Do?

Reader: Do we get judged for every detail of what we do on this Earth?

Rabbi: I don't see why God would distinguish between a greater sin that one perpetrates versus a smaller evil. God knows all. In both cases a person is corrupt and does not follow God. This applies to good deeds too, whether small or large. God knows every detail and the Torah is based on a system of reward and punishment, without qualification of the severity of our good and evil actions: any good or evil we do is judged. Additionally we see that Yom Kippur atones for a different level sins in different ways, whether we sin against our friends which requires us to appease them and gain their forgiveness, or whether we sin by eating non-kosher which is forgiven without such appeasement. We see that there are levels of atonement because all of our actions are taken into consideration. And in the Yom Kippur prayers—“Al Chate”—we confess dozens of different offenses. This clearly teaches that every single offense—great or small—is something for which we must atone.

Talmud Rosh Hashanna 17 says:

A Sage from the school of Rabbi Yishmael taught in a baraita: “He overlooks each and every first transgression, and that is the attribute of mercy, that God forgives one’s first sin, and therefore He tips the scale in favor of the merits.” Rava said: “But that sin itself, which God overlooks, is not completely erased; if the individual’s actions are still mostly sins, God counts the overlooked sin with them and metes out punishment accordingly.”

Rava understood this verse differently and said: “With regard to whoever forgoes his reckonings with others for injustices done to him, the heavenly court in turn forgoes punishment for all his sins, as it is stated: ‘He bears sin and forgives transgression’ (Micah 7:18). Whose sins does He bear? The sins of one who forgoes his reckonings with others for injustices committed against him.”

Thereby we see there is more to God’s mercy than simple math of our sins versus merits; other mitigating matters are also weighed when judging man, such as his total proportion of sins to merits, and also if man was forgiving of taking others to task for their wrongs to him. If he let others slide, God lets him slide and does not punish him for his own sins.  

God Knows Man’s Mind

Moses pointed out to Pharaoh (Exod. 9:30-32) that during the plague of hail, the stiff and hard plants of flax and barley were crushed, while the unripe soft wheat and spelt bounced back unharmed. This was not an agriculture lesson. Moses revealed to Pharaoh that God created a parallel: if Pharaoh was stiff he would break, but if he was flexible he could survive the plagues. 

The more profound lesson however is that Moses was teaching Pharaoh a great difference between his idols and between the Creator of the world. The Creator knows Pharaoh’s stubbornness and can craft a plague specifically around his personality. This should wake up Pharaoh to the lifeless nature of his idols that never once responded to his prayers and never once reacted. In contrast, the true God knows Pharaoh intimately and portrays his personality in this plague.

Success Doesn’t Indicate Justice

Rabbi Moshe Ben-Chaim & Rabbi Moshe Abarbanel

The Shima prayer quote Moses’ words:

If you obey the commandments that I command you this day, loving your God and serving [God] with all your heart and soul, I will grant the rain for your land in season, the early rain and the late. You shall gather in your new grain and wine and oil. I will also provide grass in the fields for your cattle—and thus you shall eat your fill. (Deut. 11:13-15). 

Therefore, one is justified to “suggest” (not say with any certainty) that his success might be due to God’s providence, through His reward and punishment. Why then did Sarah accuse Hagar of feeling righteous after becoming pregnant from Abraham? Hagar looked down upon Sarah who could not get pregnant after many years, while Hagar became pregnant immediately. Hagar felt righteous. 

There is a major difference. Hagar’s case is not similar to Moses’ promise of success which require alignment with Torah commands and values. Hagar's feeling of righteousness was based solely on pregnancy. That’s not what Moses said. Moses said goodness from God results from following Torah. But to assess good fortune as a sign of righteousness without having performed Torah—the case of Hagar—one is superstitious, as if success alone validates one as righteous. Hagar thought any success indicates God’s favor, even with the lack of Torah values. That’s  not what Moses said, and it is idolatrous to say so because this assumes knowledge of God, or worse, knowledge of false powers. 

Are Bible and God’s Justice Outdated?

Any new alteration of a law system indicates ignorance by the law’s original drafters, as such adjustments admit of unseen new circumstances. However, God’s foreknowledge of all future events and His design of man’s unchanging nature defend God’s command to never alter His Bible (Deut. 4:2, 13:1). Thus, Bible is never outdated or inapplicable in any generation as Bible was designed with God’s complete knowledge of man and knowledge of all future events. 

Ibn Ezra on Miracles

Ibn Ezra teaches (Exod. 8:12) that Aaron performed the lower miracles (those in the Earth) while Moses performed the higher miracles (those in the heavens). This correlates the level of a human’s understanding with the miracle’s performance. As there a greater laws operating in the heavens than in mere soil and water, the greater man Moses was necessary to perform those plagues. Thus, the purpose of the plagues was to reveal that the world operates through wisdom which refutes Egyptian idolatry assuming powers exist with no rhyme or reason. 

King David’s Wisdom

 Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see; they have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but cannot smell; they have hands, but cannot touch, feet, but cannot walk; they can make no sound in their throats. Those who fashion them, all who trust in them, shall become like them. (Psalms 115:4-8).

Idols are inanimate. But how are the worshippers “like them?” It is precisely because their eyes see the lifelessness of idols, yet they attribute life to them. Just as idols are not alive but are considered to live, their worshippers are have senses but deny the lifelessness of idols! Worshippers see the lifeless nature of idols and assume they are alive. Both, idols and their worshippers contradict reality.

Insights on the Plagues

God certainly could have destroyed all Egypt’s crops with a single plague of hail. Therefore we wonder what is God’s plan in the next plague of locusts in consuming “the remnants” of the hail,” repeated 3 times (Exod. 5,12,15)? But if we are mindful of the purpose of the plagues we are directed to a beautiful answer. 

God intended to expose Egypt's idolatrous beliefs in multiple gods, magicians, astrologers, et al. as the prophet says, “I do not desire the destruction of the wicked person says God, but in his repentance and his continued life” (Ezek. 18:32). And part of exposing false gods is to identify the various realms of reality Egyptians deified, which included the heavens as well as the animal kingdom among. And if they can realize that these two realms are actually under the control of a superior being, this would help them reject their deification and accept God alone, the true controller of the universe. Therefore God orchestrated that a single objective of destroying crops was targeted by both the meteorological phenomena—hail—and the animal kingdom—locusts. When one witnesses two unrelated spheres of reality with one objective, one realizes there must be something greater that is controlling these two parts of reality to achieve a singular purpose. Therefore God left over some of the vegetation during the plague of hail in order that the locusts would duplicate the same objective in eating the crops’ remnants.

Another interesting statement is that during the plague of darkness, Torah tells us that “Man could not see his brother” (Exod. 10:23). Again as the objective of the plagues was not annihilation of people, but an attempt to correct their idolatry and instead, follow reality, this also must point to that in some way. What darkness does as this verse clearly states, is it suspends the ability to be social, you cannot see others and you cannot communicate with them. But as man is inherently social, he is forced into some dialogue and the only being whom to communicate is the one that just brought about this darkness, namely the Hebrew God. As a last step  God wished that the Egyptians would confront His reality. Isolation through absolute darkness and lack of communication enables this confrontation in the minds of every Egyptian.