Parasha Re’eh
SAN DIEGO — This Shabbat, Rosh Chodesh Elul, begins the season of “cheshbon hanefesh,” a sacred task involving an “accounting of the soul.” It’s no coincidence, of course, that the parasha we read, Re’eh, begins:
See (look), I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of the L-rd your G-d, which I am commanding you today; and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of the L-rd your G-d, but turn aside from the way which I am commanding you today, by following other gods which you have not known.
Notice the tense of “…I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse…” Shouldn’t it read, “…I set before you today a blessing and a curse…”? After all, we already received the Torah. This teaches us that it isn’t in fact in the past, but rather this setting before us is an ongoing, daily, ever-present part of our lives, a reward, a gift, if we know how to receive it.
Elul brings a time for us to step outside of our daily numbing mindlessness, and to carefully review our choices, good and bad, to see and recognize our wrongdoings and those things we incorrectly attached ourselves to, in order to prepare to do “t’shuvah,” repent, and to grow. Perhaps that’s what G-d is telling us in the parasha. He puts blessings and curses in front of us and teaches us the path to blessings (11:26-32).
Don’t just listen, don’t believe everything you see and think, instead review and DO, but choose wisely seeing that your choices will bring you blessings or curses. He’s telling us to open our minds, our eyes, to the positive, to the blessings in life. This, the parasha is teaching, will bring happiness.
From seeing what you eat, the laws of kashrut, to choosing to not worship “other gods,” to caring for those in need, to filling our time with what is sacred and meaningful, the parasha offers us a toolkit for happiness at a time we are assessing our past year’s behaviors. We can choose, with freewill, to do our will or we can choose, with freewill, to do His will. Each carries consequences. Hashem has given us the facility to do what is right as individuals and as representatives of our Jewish community.
Some confuse reverence for Hashem with obligation. He is telling us not to be robotic, but instead to choose joyfully, to listen to His commandments with gladness. Remember, “…let us exult and rejoice” on the day the L-rd has made.
As we face Elul, it’s a time to ask ourselves how we’ve done following our own ways, and how it would be different, better, following cheerfully, His ways.
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Dr. Mantell writes a d’var Torah each week for Young Israel of San Diego, where he and his family worship.