It always fascinates me that Nobel Prize winners are awarded cash prizes along with the title “Nobel Prize Winner.” One would think that such intellectual people, those who have their “heads in the clouds” or are “altruistic people,” are more concerned with the good of humanity than with monetary prizes, so why demean their accomplishments with something so mundane as money? To some extent it undermines the message of their success. We try to say how much they contributed to society by putting their needs to the side and doing good for the public, and then we go and reward them for it. How? By giving them something that they themselves shunned?!
This would not be a question if their pursuit were money to begin with. But generally speaking, the more “spiritual” the object that we run after, the less meaningful a monetary reward will mean to us. Yet, it seems that we are always rewarded with gifts and fame. Why is that so?
This question becomes even more perplexing when we look at this week’s Torah portion, where G-d tells us that He will reward us for doing Mitzvot not with some spiritual benefit but with physical pleasure! So it is not just us, corporeal beings, that live this life of contradiction, but it is seemingly G-d who feeds this same addiction to worldly pleasures.
Therefore, we must presume that there is a deeper meaning here.
Money and worldly pleasures are not bad when used for the right purpose. Actually, they can and should be elevated to become holy. More to the point, if we don’t recognize the advantage of bringing holiness and Mitzvot into the realm of money and the mundane, then we are missing the point of Tikun Olam, changing and repairing this world.
In order to truly make a difference in this world, we have to be able to relate to the lowest elements of this world, even to the things that attempt to “pull us down” (not literally pull us down).
That is why G-d rewards us with physical things for doing Mitzvot, and that is why, even when we do a Mitzvah for altruistic reasons, we still appreciate when we are rewarded with a “cash prize”—not because we want the cash, but because with the cash we can go on to do more Mitzvot, and keep on making this world a better place.
The same is true with the Nobel Prize winner. The cash prize is not the point—it is the honor of the prize. The cash that accompanies the title is a tangible expression of the unique contribution this individual has given to society.
We all contribute to society in our own ways, and we all do our little – or big – Mitzvot. May Hashem reward us in very tangible ways and may we succeed in Tikun Olam, repairing this world and making this world a “home for G-d.”