Parashat Re’eh by Jeroen Reuven Bours

Moshe Rabbenu continues his long address to Bnei Israel - but today his language is quit remarkable. Re’eh, literally ‘See…’ is not often used to open an argument in the Torah. Nowadays when you walk around on Israeli streets you will hear ‘Tir-eh…’ literally ‘You’ll see…’ everywhere when people try to make a point to each other. Both expressions can be translated in old English as ‘Behold…’ or in modern speak; ‘Look here…’ And the latter is how strong the expression really is. Moshe has explained tirelessly over the last weeks how Bnei Israel ought to conduct itself in order to be worthy enough to enter Eretz Israel. ‘Look here…’ Moshe says and he continues to make a very simple argument: ‘…I set before you today a blessing and a curse’.  Rashi tells us that the blessing and curse refer to those made on Mount Gerizim and Ebal. Rashi also tells us that this blessing is on the condition that you listen and obey - ‘Al menat asher tisme’u.’ Rashi is of the opinion that ‘Al menat…’ means ‘On account of that…’ and that these words have a retroactive meaning. Rashi makes a huge leap of faith by believing that Bnei Israel receives the blessing before doing good. Here, in the middle of the Moshe’s never ending address, Bnei Israel receives a sign that good is a given. It is in fact a simple black and white argument Moshe creates, a yes or no question, a fork in the road. Be good and you’ll receive good, be bad and you’ll receive many forms of punishment. But what this also underlines is the main Jewish principle - that of freewill. No matter how many times Moshe Rabbenu teaches Bnei Israel about the laws, freewill is the untouchable Jewish principle. And there is the issue of ‘ash-re’ versus ‘im’ in the sentence; ‘…a blessing if (ash-er) you will obey, versus; ‘…a curse if (im) you will not obey.’ Rabbis have discussed how ‘im’ or ‘if’ could have been used in both sentences. Rabbi Malbim, Der Kempener Magid, an expert in Hebrew semantics, has this to say; ‘A blessing that you will obey…’ means that the mitzvot in themselves are the blessing. In fact, there’s no mitzvah you get for doing a mitzvah. There’s no reward for doing good. Virtue is its own reward. But, the word ‘Im…’ in conjunction with not obeying the mitzvot, is used as a choice, or uncertainty. You may or may not fail, or do bad or go off the deep end. Doing good, is what is expected, doing bad is a choice, an abnormality. Read the first sentences fast, and you may not even notice the fine difference Moshe is trying to teach us. Read it slow and you realize what good is and how bad, bad can be.