Dear TBZ Community,
Parashat Re’eh, this week’s Torah portion, opens with one of the Torah’s most powerful and defining invitations:
רְאֵה אָנֹכִי נֹתֵן לִפְנֵיכֶם הַיּוֹם בְּרָכָה וּקְלָלָה
See, this day I set before you blessing and curse (Deuteronomy 11:26).
In these difficult days – days marked by war, political polarization, fear, and uncertainty – these words feel painfully real. In Parashat Re’eh, before anything else, the Torah asks us to recognize that blessing and curse are not abstract ideas. They are placed before us הַיּוֹם (ha’yom, today). The choices we make matter.
The Hebrew of this verse presents an intriguing grammatical puzzle.
The opening word, רְאֵה (re’eh, see), is singular. It speaks to one individual. But לִפְנֵיכֶם (lifneichem, before you) is plural.
You, individually, are asked to see what is placed before all of you.
The twelfth-century commentator Ibn Ezra explains that although Moses is addressing the entire people, he deliberately speaks in the singular because every person must choose for themselves.
ראה. לכל אחד ידבר
“See.” Moses speaks to each individual.
Yet the blessing and the curse stand before all of Israel. Our individual choices are inseparable from our collective destiny.
I am reminded of the well-known story of two people traveling in a boat. One begins drilling a hole beneath his own seat. The other cries out, “What are you doing? We’re going to sink!” The first responds, “Why should you care? This is my side of the boat.”
Of course, there is no such thing as “my side” of the boat when it comes to structural integrity.
Our lives are bound together. The choices we make are never ours alone. They shape our families, our communities, our country, and our world.
The Torah then asks an even deeper question: What values guide those choices?
Parashat Re’eh warns us that we may encounter voices that promise certainty, security, or simple answers.
כִּי יָקוּם בְּקִרְבְּךָ נָבִיא אוֹ חֹלֵם חֲלוֹם… וּבָא הָאוֹת וְהַמּוֹפֵת… לֵאמֹר נֵלְכָה אַחֲרֵי אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים… לֹא תִשְׁמַע אֶל דִּבְרֵי הַנָּבִיא הַהוּא
If there arises among you a prophet or a dream-diviner… and the sign or wonder comes true… saying, “Let us follow other gods…” you shall not listen to the words of that prophet (Deuteronomy 13:2-4)…
The remarkable thing is that the Torah says the signs may actually work. The miracle itself is not the test.
The test is whether we will allow ourselves to be seduced by voices that promise easy certainty, absolute answers, or fear disguised as truth. Idolatry in the Torah is not only about statues; it is about misplaced trust, about surrendering our moral clarity to anything that pulls us away from the values God asks of us.
So what does it mean to follow God? A few verses later the Torah says:
אַחֲרֵי ה’ אֱלֹהֵיכֶם תֵּלֵכוּ
After the Eternal your God shall you walk (Deuteronomy 13:5).
The rabbis immediately ask: How can a human being possibly walk after God?
The Talmud (Sotah 14a) answers:
Walk after God’s attributes.
Just as God clothed the naked, so should you clothe the naked.
Just as God visited the sick, so should you visit the sick.
Just as God comforted mourners, so should you comfort mourners.
Just as God buried the dead, so should you bury the dead.
Each of these statements is accompanied by an example of God doing exactly that. This is not theory, this is practice. This is real. The Torah is not describing an abstract ideal of holiness, it is pointing to lived acts of compassion already modeled by God in the world.
And the modeling is about running toward those who are suffering rather than away from them. It is about choosing compassion over indifference, generosity over fear, responsibility over isolation.
In a season of contentious elections, in a time when the future of our country, and so much of our shared humanity, feels uncertain, I believe this is the question the Torah places before us: What values are guiding our choices?
Are we choosing fear or compassion? Division or responsibility? Certainty that closes our hearts or faith that opens them?
May we have the courage to truly see. May we choose blessing, not only for ourselves, but for one another.
May we walk in God’s ways by caring for the vulnerable, comforting the brokenhearted, and remembering that we are all in the same boat.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rav Claudia