Parashas Re'eh – Seeing is Believing This week we have Parashas Re'eh which along with next week's Parashas Shoftim and the week after, Ki Seitzei, contain the majority of the commandments which are found in the book of Devarim. Up until now Moshe has given over commandments to love Hashem and to accept his oneness and has also spoken of fearing Hashem and the repercussions of transgressing against his Torah. This week's Parasha seems to put these previously mentioned requirements into perspective by stating that the choice between accepting the Torah and living by its ways or chas veshalom rejecting them and living a more exotic lifestyle is no more than... “a blessing and a curse” [11:26]. According to the Ramban this was Moshe's literal take on things saying that those who observed the commandments would be blessed and those who did not would be cursed. The Vilna Gaon also comes to support this view, stating that Moshe was offering the people advice that in each aspect of their daily life they would be faced with the choice whether or not to obey Hashem, this would therefore inclusively involve the choice of whether to bring blessing or curse, life or death upon oneself. Rashi however seems to disagree with these opinions and puts this statement down to the blessing and curse which would be later pronounced on Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal (In Parashas Ki Savo) which will be discussed then, Bezrat Hashem.
In this weeks Parsha we are told to “See” – Hashem gives us reward for every good deed and (Chas ve shalom) curses for bad deeds.
A look closer at the first verse causes us to ask a fundamental question.
The Torah seems to be talking to the individual. It uses language of “Re'eh” in the singular tense, and yet continues a few words later in the plural tense with the word “Lifneichem.”
Why does the Torah change tense, surely it should have finished the sentence in the singular – Lefanecha?
Jewish History has its ups and downs. There was a time in Israel that the Kingdom was ruled by a wicked Jewish king by the name of Menashe. He took it upon himself to ensure the destruction of every Sifrei Torah in Israel, and led the people astray. Needless to say many sinned and the nation sunk to a low
The opening three psukim of the sedra tell us that should we listen to HaShem we will get bracha, and should we ignore HaShem’s word then we will get klala (curse). But the Torah does not then go on to tell us what these blessings and curses are. Why, and what‘s going on here? Rav Moshe Feinstein answers beautifully that the answer is embedded within the simple reading of the psukim themselves. The pasuk says ‘the bracha that you listen to HaShem’s mitzvos…and the curse if you do not listen to HaShem’s mitzvos…’ The bracha is the mitzvos themselves, and the curse is failing to keep the mitzvos. As the Ohr Hachaim (and Messilas Yesharim) spells out, if one keeps the mitzvos and their spirit properly then there is not greater feeling of happiness, achievement, and fulfilment. And the converse is true too (I have seen it); there’s nothing more conducive to a life of drabness, emptiness, and lack of fulfilment than a life bereft of mitzvos. Similarly, as Rashi writes (Bamidbar 18:7), the greatest gift is the ability and privilege to serve HaShem - that is the only thing which uplifts us as people.
The opening pasuk of the sedra of Re’eh reads ‘see I am placing before you blessing and curse,’ and goes on to explain that the blessings will vest themselves upon us should we follow HaShem’s path, whilst the curses will find shelter amongst us if we veer off this path. But what exactly is the opening word ‘see’ doing here - what are we supposed to look at here? The Sforno explains that this is a command that we are to look deep within ourselves and realise that we are not an average people, and that each one of us is not to be merely average. HaShem gives us two extremes - blessing or curse - but being average is not an option.
"Aser T'Aser" The Gemara in Taanis learns from this pasuk "Aser Bishvil ShtisAsher" - give Maaser in order that you should become wealthy. The Vilna Gaon says, it is for this reason that the Trop on the word, "T'Aser" is a Zakaif Katon - meaning - the Katon (the poor man) will be Zakaif - stand tall and become wealthy through his Maaser.
In our sedra, Moshe warns the people ‘You shall go in the ways of HaShem your G-D’ (13;5), regarding which the gemarra (Sotah 14a) asks ‘is it possible to go after the Shechinah, which is referred to as a consuming fire ?’ Rather, says the gemarra, Moshe is telling the people to emulate the traits of HaShem. HaShem clothes the naked, so should we (that’s providing clothes, not a tznius drive). HaShem visits the sick, so should we. HaShem comforts mourners, so should we. HaShem buries the dead, so should we. The idea carries two messages to it. Firstly, this is the source for acting in ways of chesed to one another. But equally pressing is the fact that we are to act with chesed to emulate HaShem’s chesed. What that means is that we are to do mitzvos bein adam lechaveiro on HaShem’s terms. Let’s briefly explain…
Our sedra is special in that it kicks off Moshe Rabeinu’s main repetition of the mitzvos . Not all the miztvos are repeated, however; the ones appertaining to the kohannim/sacrifices are not repeated, for we have a principal that ‘kohannim are meticulous in their specific commandments’ (kohannim zerizim heim) and so repetition would be unnecessary for them.
One of the many mitzvos mentioned in our sedra is tzedaka. This comprises of a positive mitzvah to ‘surely open your hand’ to the poor person (15;8), and also a negative prohibition ‘do not harden your heart [from helping] and withhold your hand [from giving tzedaka to] from your destitute brother (15;7).’ As an aside, I heard an interesting insight into the above pasuk to ‘open your hand’ in giving tzedakah. When your hand is closed and fingers pointed towards you, all the fingers look the same size. But when you open your hand, you can see that the fingers are
