Take the Long Way Home
A picture is worth 1,000 words. In the picture of life and love, the long view, not the shiny new miracle, holds us to our truth.
Parashat Re’eh - 2018
Will you get swayed by momentary flashes of excitement, or do you know in your heart what’s real? Are you influenced by a momentary distraction, or will you take a long-term view of things?
At first glance Parashat Re’eh, seems to be a generic compilation of commands and guidelines for the Jews as they enter the land of Israel. Similar to the entire book of Devarim or Deuteronomy, which seems to be merely a review of what came before, as its alternate name implies, “Mishneh Torah”, a review of the Torah.
However, as I’ve stressed in previous posts, Devarim, or Deuteronomy, is not a generic book in any sense of the word. On the contrary, it’s the only book of the Chumash that emanates directly from Moshe Rabbeinu. Sefer Devarim was orated by Moshe, not God, because it’s a book about our relationship with our teacher, a human being. After all, at the end of the day, Torah is about relationships. And through Moshe, Devarim incorporates both the direct Word of God and the Oral Tradition, creating a transition from one to the other. As mentioned, our other name for Devarim is “Mishneh Torah”, which is fitting, because just as the concept of a year, “Shana”, represents both the repetition of days and the progression of time, so too does “Mishneh Torah” simultaneously represent repetition of the past and progression into the future. Possibly this connection is one reason why we read Devarim going into the Jewish New Year, called Rosh Hashanah.
So, if we view Sefer Devarim in this context, Parshat Re’eh is a step further along the road from parshiot Eikev and Vaetchanan of the previous two weeks.
Rashi at the beginning of Parshat Eikev explains that the word “Eikev” refers to the trampling of individual mitzvot, and therefore, we have the word “Shema” repeated many times over the previous two weeks, emphasizing “to hear.” Contrast that to this week, where we emphasize Re’eh, “to see.” It is possible to understand this progression in light of the Zohar that explains the significance of the alphabetical sequence of the hebrew letters ayin and peh: the letter ayin literally means “eye” and peh literally means “mouth”. The ayin supersedes the peh, because when you see, you can take in the entire context in front of you, whereas when you speak, you can only utter one syllable at a time. As the saying goes, a picture is worth 1,000 words. So we’re sort of elevating ourselves from the peh to the ayin, from speaking to seeing, over past few weeks. And that’s why the word for fear, “yirah” is based on the root “re’iyah” to see -- because someone who fears something sees the broad implications of what it will bring about.
Even Elon Musk, the business magnate and pioneering engineer, who happens to have been all over the news this week, quotes a philosophy that captures the message of our Parsha, as it applies to money and all of our relationships – “Life is too short for long term grudges.”
This could also explain why our Parsha, at the beginning, mentions the blessings and curses that in the future will be recited on Mount Gerezim and Mount Aival. We only learn the details of that story much later on, so why even mention them now?
In their own unique ways, the Rambam in hilchot teshuva and the Ramban al hatorah both offer the same explanation: that when God says “I place before you a blessing and a curse”, He’s not specifically referring to blessings and curses declared on these Mountains, but to the path that is created by our choices, a path that takes us to a future which becomes either a blessing or a curse. So when we talk about putting before us today a blessing and a curse, we are considering how the choices we make each day will accumulate to create a path of blessing or a cursed path. And that path should stem directly from re’eh, from seeing, which means taking the long view about the implications of our choices.
It’s kind of like when you drive, the instructor says, “Make sure you look ahead, not just in front of you.” That’s the view God wants us to have and is teaching us for the first time in this Parsha. Don’t simply pay attention to detail. Look at the broader scope of life. When we think about spiritual issues, we must look toward the future, beyond our own generations.
And this explains as well the section of the Parsha which deals with the navi sheker, the false prophet, which is a very perplexing topic. Rabeinu Nisim explains in meseschet Bava Basra 2a, that God gave this false prophet the ability to perform miracles. Why would God do that? Why would He want to trick us that way? So the verse in the Torah makes God’s intention clear: ישכם אהבים את יהוה בכל לבבכם ובכל נפשכם, “I did this to see whether you love Me or not.” The verse doesn’t say, “I did this to see whether you can discern the difference between the word of God and word of a prophet of idols.”, it says it’s a test of love. Will you get swayed by momentary flashes of excitement, or do you know in your heart what’s real? Are you influenced by a momentary distraction, or will you take a long-term view of things? This prophet is going to perform spectacular miracles, but real life is about enduring values. That’s what Parsha Re’eh is teaching us about our relationship to Torah and God and the Jewish people and Israel and our families. Take the long-term view.
This message is vital in all areas of our lives. It can help us in our relationships with people, with God, and even with material things such as money. A very successful mutual fund manager once told me a widely circulated aphorism in the investment world: “An investment is like a bar of soap – the more you touch it, the smaller it gets.” Meaning you need a long-term view to be successful managing money.
Even Elon Musk, the business magnate and pioneering engineer, who happens to have been all over the news this week, quotes a philosophy that captures the message of our Parsha, as it applies to money and all of our relationships – “Life is too short for long term grudges.” I think the world would be a better place if we heeded that advice.
Copyright 2022 by Eliezer Hirsch