Re’eh: Choose life, a path of blessings, to make a better world

This week’s portion, Re’eh, begins with Moshe’s dramatic presentation of the blessings and the curses, which seem at first glance to be all about the rewards and punishments that await us when we enter the land of Israel, just across the Jordan river:

“Re’eh anochi noten lifneichem hayom brachah u’klalah…“See, I present before you today a blessing and a curse.

“The blessing: that you shall listen to the commandments of Hashem your G-d, which I command you this day. And the curse: if you do not hearken to the commandments of Hashem your G-d, and stray from the path that I command you this day, to follow other gods that you did not know.”(Devarim 11:26-28)

Moshe continues:

“And it shall be, when Hashem your G-d brings you into the land that you are coming to, to inherit, and you shall place (give) the blessing on Mount Grizim, and the curse on Mount Eival.” (11:29)

How does one “place” blessings or curses on a mountain? Further, it seems that these blessings and curses take effect only when we actually enter the land of Israel, and seem to be related to a specific place: two mountains, which stand across from each other in a particular valley. And the Torah makes sure we know exactly where this valley is:

“Are they (these mountains) not just across the Jordan, beyond the Sunset Highway (towards the Sun), in the land of the Canaanite, that dwells in the plain, opposite Gilgal, near Elonei (the plain of) Mamrei.” (11:30)

Tradition tells us that these mountains, whose names remain to this day, stand above and on either side of the valley, which leads into the city of Shechem (Nablus). What is so important about these mountains, why must the blessings and curses be placed “there” and why are these blessings and curses not delineated here? Why do we have to wait another three weeks to read what they actually are?

Rashi tries to resolve one of our questions by suggesting that “you shall place (give) the blessing on Mount Grizim, and the curse on Mount Eival.” refers to those who bless.

And Moshe (27:11-13) does later explain that when the Jews actually enter the land, six of the tribes will stand on one mountain and six on the other. But, as the Ramban (11:29) points out, this does not seem to fit the text, especially as the Torah does not actually mention those who are blessing at all!

And there are other difficulties: Why does Moshe tell the people to “look” “today”? What is so special about this particular day?

One also wonders why the Torah chooses to begin discussing a mitzvah that appears to have little or no bearing on this topic: to destroy Canaanite idolatry. What does the command to destroy Canaanite idolatry have to do with the consequences of our general behavior as a people?

When Judaism began, and Avraham first entered the land of Israel at G-d’s behest, guess what his first stop was?

“And Avram passed into the land as far as the site of Shechem.” (Genesis 12:6)

And Rashi makes the point of saying that “(Hashem) showed him Mount Grizim and Mount Eival, for there Israel received the oath (promise) of the Torah.” (Rashi, 12:6)

So Moshe tells the Jewish people, that when they enter the land, they need to go back to the place where it all began. The Talmud tells us (Tractate Sotah 36a): “In a single day, Israel crossed the Jordan and came directly to Mount Grizim and Mount Eival, a distance of over 60 miles.”

What Moshe is saying, suggests the Ramban (11:29), is that they must choose the path of blessings. Until this point, the Jewish people have been living a life of very little choice. Manna falls from the sky, water appears from a magic well, and all their actions meet with immediate reactions, such that they are not really choosing, merely testing.

As they enter into the land, the next generation of Jews are told that their time has come to choose. How do you choose to live? Do you want to live a life of blessing, or a cursed life? The choice, in the end, is yours.

Perhaps that is why the actual blessings and curses do not appear here, because they are not yet the topic, they are the result of this topic much later on. Here, we are not dealing with the consequences of our choices; we are dealing with the choices themselves!

Four thousand years ago, an individual, alone in a world full of idolatry, heard a calling and made a choice. Moshe gives his descendants the same challenge: to choose to make the world a better place to be.

Maybe this is why when we enter Israel, part of that choice entails breaking the idols, just as Avraham did. Before we can fill our lives with the light of seeing things the way they are meant to be, we have to let go of all the obstacles that keep us in the mire of the mistaken objectives that idolatry represents.

This is the legacy of the city of Shechem, where Joseph is buried. Joseph was really the first Jew to live and die in true exile, sold by his brothers into Egyptian slavery, and he chose to live up to who he was meant to be, despite all the challenges he faced.

This might be why we are told to fulfill this command “today” — because every day is a new day, the beginning of the rest of our lives, and how we choose to live that life is entirely dependent on how, first and foremost, we choose to view the world.

It is no accident that the portion of Re’eh, all about seeing things in a different way, always precedes Elul, the month leading up to Rosh Hashanah, and the month that represents in Jewish tradition our attempt to see the world as it was meant to be, and decide how we can do a little better this year in helping it and us to get there.

May Hashem bless us all in the coming year with the vision to see the cup as full, and the doors as open, and allow us the wisdom to see things in a better light, and the strength to then make them be that way.

Best wishes for a sweet, happy and healthy new year, Ketivah Ve’Chatimah Tovah,

Shabbat Shalom from Efrat and Yerushalayim, Binny Freedman