Chasidut for Orlah 1:10

God desires that man receive his reward based on his own efforts. Then it will be called (Tehillim, 128:2), “You will eat based on the work of your own hands, fortunate are you, and it will be good for you.” This is as the Jerusalem Talmud states (Orlah, 1:3), “Someone who receives his food from another is ashamed to look his benefactor in the face.” One who receives a free gift cannot receive it face to face. This is as it is said in the Gemara (Pesachim 118a), “What did David have in mind when he said, ‘His mercy endures forever’ twenty-six times?²⁸In Psalm 136. They correspond to the twenty-six generations from the creation of Adam until the giving of the Torah, which were all sustained purely on God’s benevolence.”²⁹In other words, until the generation that the Torah was finally given (the 26th from the creation of Adam), human beings were sustained through G-d’s benevelence, and not in response to their own deeds. This state, however, does not fulfill G-d’s intention for the world, and were the Torah not given, the world would not have been able to continue.