Re’eih, Devar Torah

Rayah Moses – Year 9

This week’s parashah is Re’eih. Re’eih explores the idea of a blessing and a curse. Moshe, speaking for God, states, “See, I place before you today a blessing and a curse” – the blessing that will come when you fulfil God’s commandments, and the curse if you abandon them. 

Moshe coaches them to choose the blessings. But did he really need to give them that advice? Wouldn’t anyone choose blessings over curses? Just like if you were offered your favourite food or something you don’t really like, which one would you really choose?

You see, sometimes we make choices that we may think are wise, but could limit our choices or our future, for example, if you decide to stay up that extra hour or so because you really wanted to finish your movie or TV show. It may seem like a great idea at the time until the next day at school when you get tired half way through the day, which could have a detrimental affect on your learning.

So the lesson would be to simply make good decisions now, so that later in life you will realise that you did ‘choose your blessing’.

When we think about this ‘blessing’ and ‘curse’, can we relate it to our world today?

With this question in mind, why do we do good things? Do we do good things to avoid punishment? When, for example, we wear school uniform, do we do that by choice or because if we don’t, there will be consequences, which can be seen as a curse. Alternatively, do we do good things for a reward, such as helping around the house, just to receive the reward. Or, do we do things purely based on morals and the desire to help others. 

Mishnah Avot teaches us: “Who is wise? One who sees the future”. When Moshe used the word Re’eih he didn’t just want the Israelites to ‘listen’ to his words but to ‘see’ what the outcome would be of either obeying or disobeying them.

Therefore, if we see the potential outcome of our actions would we choose to act differently?

Re’eih, Devar Torah

Liahm Simon – Year 11

Prior to parashat Re’eih, Moshe learned his fate, and came to terms with the fact that he will never set foot in the Promised Land of Israel. He now uses the twilight of his life to deliver a series of final speeches to the Children of Israel.

The parashah starts with Moshe telling the children of Israel: “רְאֵ֗ה אָנֹכִ֛י נֹתֵ֥ן לִפְנֵיכֶ֖ם הַיּ֑וֹם בְּרָכָ֖ה וּקְלָלָֽה, see, this day I set before you blessing (berakhah) and curse”. The irony of the obvious paradox set before the Jewish nation is compounded by the fact that Moshe, the leader of the Jewish people, is speaking these words from his deathbed. He is essentially showing the people of Israel the consequences of not listening to God’s commands.

Initially the phrase can be understood to mean that you will suffer the consequences of both the blessing and the curse, not the understanding that we have come to: “I am placing before you either the blessing or the curse, and each person can choose as to whether he/she receives the blessing of being part of the Jewish nation, or the feel the might of God if you betray Him.

The children of Israel are continually reminded that: “It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land” (Deut. 9: 5), that no Jew is better than any other non-Jew but that our ancestors, Avraham, Yitschak, Ya’akov, Sarah, Rivkah, Rachel and Leah were the first believers – they chose God, God did not choose the Jewish nation.

This sentiment is echoed throughout the rest of the parashah as the laws of kashrut are again recited as well as the laws of shemittah, along with the continual recital throughout the rest of Devarim of the laws of which we should live by. These laws are repeated because a person’s ability to be observant should not be impinged upon by anything, and repeating the mitzvot increases the possibility of these commandments not being forgotten. In relation to the opening lines of this week’s parashah, one can understand that God does not want to impose his wrath upon us, but instead being a Jew should be considered a berakhah.

The final aliyah of the parashah highlights how the Israelites are to celebrate the three Pilgrimage Festivals of Pesach, Shavu’ot and Sukkot and that during these times everyone must be joyous. Joy is not the first word that naturally comes to mind when we think of the severity of Judaism as a moral code or the tear-stained pages of Jewish history.

As Jews, we have degrees in misery, postgraduate qualifications in guilt, and gold-medal performances in excuse implementation. Someone once summed the Jewish experience in three sentences: “They tried to kill us. We survived. Let’s eat.” Yet in truth what shines through so many of the Psalms is pure, radiant joy. And joy is one of the keywords of the book of Devarim, of which parashat Re’eih is a part. The root word “smkh” (joy) appears once in each of the first 4 books of the Bible, Bereishit, Shemot, VaYikra and BeMidbar, but 12 times in the fifth and final book, Devarim, with 7 of these in our parashah.

We might think of Judaism as a set of laws to live by, and we might be taught to be good God fearing Jews. But, that is not the essence of Judaism. The core of our religion is that together we celebrate, unite and stand up as one joint community and, sometimes in the face of adversity, we celebrate our freedom in joy and in the land of Israel.