"Behold, I set before you today a blessing"
(Deuteronomy 11:26)
Av 29, 5779/August 30, 2019
"Look! See! Behold! Open your eyes!" All these are perfectly valid translations of this week's Torah reading's opening word - "Re'eh!" The verse continues, "I set before you today a blessing and a curse." (Deuteronomy 11:29) Why is Torah suddenly appealing to our sense of sight? Earlier in the book of Deuteronomy we are told, "Shema Yisrael! - Hear O Israel - HaShem is our G-d - HaShem is One!" If our sense of hearing is capable of embodying and conveying this cardinal truth of Torah Judaism, why is Moshe now appealing to Israel to open their eyes to see, and not simply to open their ears to hear?
Moshe goes on to explain the basis of this blessing/curse dichotomy: "The blessing, that you will heed the commandments of HaShem your G-d, which I command you today; and the curse, if you will not heed the commandments of HaShem your G-d, but turn away from the way I command you this day, to follow other gods, which you did not know." (ibid 11:27-28) Unlike the Shema, which is conveyed audibly, and which is recited twice daily with eyes shut, the blessing and curse being presented to us is not a statement of knowledge and conviction, but a choice. A choice requires empirical evidence, while a metaphysical conviction, such as the Shema, transcends the need for visual proof. It quickly becomes clear in parashat Re'eh that the blessing/curse choice is not a metaphysical proposal, but a real and practical choice to be made in the land of Israel, every day of our lives. The ramifications of our choice are not theoretical but real. Choose the blessing - "heed the commandments of HaShem your G-d," and Israel will be blessed with peace and prosperity and security and happiness - in the land of Israel. Choose the curse - and "not heed the commandments of HaShem your G-d,"and risk the disastrous results that will befall Israel. Either way, the results are not restricted to an internal sense of well being, or of distress, which can effectively be described audibly, in the realm of hearing, but they are laid out before us visually. Little thought or discernment is required. Open you eyes and you will see: you are cursed or you are blessed. The evidence is yours to behold.
Should this concept of visual proof of G-d's blessing still prove elusive, Torah now reveals to us the ultimate incontrovertible visual proof of G-d's blessing for Israel: "But only to the place which HaShem your G-d shall choose from all your tribes, to set His Name there; you shall inquire after His dwelling and come there. And there you shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and the separation by your hand, and your vows and your donations, and the firstborn of your cattle and of your sheep. And there you shall eat before the HaShem, your G-d, and you shall rejoice in all your endeavors you and your households, as the HaShem, your G-d, has blessed you." (ibid 12:5-7)
The Holy Temple, which is being described here by Moshe, embodies the same truth as the Shema, not simply on an intellectual and metaphysical level, but on a very here-and-now - before your eyes - or in your face - reality! "Re'eh Yisrael! - See O Israel - HaShem is our G-d - HaShem is One!" This is the message and the blessing of the Holy Temple. It is not a truth that we recite and internalize every day, but a truth that we experience physically every day, a truth that we travel to and be part of three times a year for the three Torah pilgrimage festivals of Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot, where we fulfill our Torah obligation to "be seen" in this place!
The Holy Temple is not simply the Place where we imbibe physical, visual proof that our G-d is One - it is also the Place where G-d sees us - where our existence is substantiated - where G-d's love and blessing is immediate and undeniable. G-d see us, therefore we exist and we are loved!
When G-d communicated to Avraham His commandment to take Yitzchak to the place "of which I will tell you," (Genesis 22:2) He did so via a vocal transmission of His will. But Avraham could fulfill G-d's will only by finding that place visually: "On the third day, Avraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar." (ibid 22:4) And when Yitzchak asks his father, "where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" Avraham responds, "G-d will see for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." This inter-generational bond which is being formed between Avraham and G-d and Avraham's progeny forever, has attained the level of sight, of seeing, of making visual and irrefutable, what is about to transpire. When the angel stayed Avraham's hand, effectively preventing him from performing G-d's will, as he understood it, Avraham's proof that G-d was not rejecting, but embracing him, was provided via Avraham's sense of sight: "And Avraham lifted up his eyes, and he saw, and lo! there was a ram, and that it was caught in a tree by its horns. And Avraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son." (ibid 22:13)
Sensing the enormity of what was happening, Avraham named that place, that very place which would become the Place of the Holy Temple, "HaShem will see (yir'eh), as it is said to this day: On this mountain, HaShem will be seen (yera'eh)." (ibid 22:14) See O Israel - the Holy Temple: HaShem is our G-d - HaShem is One! We are blessed!
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