BS”D
Re’eh –
20/20 or Double Vision
This
week’s parsha is parshas Reeh. We could paraphrase it 20/20 or double vision? How do
you see the world?
This
is the only religion that ever existed where you cannot believe what you do
see, and you have to believe what you can’t see. As H’ told Moshe Rabbeinu – man cannot see me and live. The greatness of H
lives on in everything and everyone. We are going to explore the Or HacChayim who has about 20 commentaries just on the word Re’eh. Just to present it, the posuk
says “here I present before you today a blessing and a curse”. So what we see
every day of our entire lives is that with Torah, if we keep it, we can see the
blessing. When a person doesn’t keep it, you can see the curses. When a person
is living, the inner light of the person is being transmitted to the outer
world. It is an awesome example of the designer and creator of the world.
Torah, Am Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael were all created as a first design of
creation and then to reflect out onto the greater picture of mankind, to see
that we are either a light unto the nations or a tragic choshech,
darkness to the world. We have to be that light unto the nations.
For
2000 years, we’ve been dragged into darkness, exile and Galus.
We lost our Beis HaBehira, the
Beis HaMikdash which is the
source of all light in the world. There have been tiny little points of light,
the lamed vav-nicks in each and every generation. But
for them, the world would not got forward. These
unique points of light, like the Shabbos Candles and the Chanuka
Candles and many other unique points of light even in the darkest nights and
even in the darkest exiles, we see this light continuing to be transmitted.
Even
for the blind there is still light.
So,
at the outset we are told by Rashi that Moshe informed the people about the
blessing and the curse, that were pronounced later on Har Grizim
and Mount Evil, Har Eval. OK, the curse was on the
evil mountain and on Har Grizim, the blessing. 6 tribes to the one and 6 tribes to the other. Not a
reflection on the Middos of any of them, just that Am
Yisrael should know and the world should know, that if one find’s oneself on a
mountain, he should know how fast he has to move from a mountain that is
cursed, which could be Har Eval, a mountain that is
completely barren and desolate, near Shechem, and Har
Grizim which is right next to it, is full of blossoms
and greenery. Two mountains right next to each other. It tells us that. Not to
look at the mountain as a blessing, but rather to understand that the Torah
that we keep is our source for our lives. “Etz Chayim Hi Lemahazkikim Bah” – it
is a tree of life for those who grasp it. That those who grasp it “ve’atem hadvekim bH’ Elokeihem,
Hayyim Kulchem Hayom” those who cleave to H are alive today, which means
today in this world and in the next world. The sidra
says, I present before you one day, but on every day of world history, H
re-presents and represents the Living Torah and we have that choice, either to
grasp the tree of life, or tragically to stumble and fall and to be ensnared by
the tree of death. The tree of death as we know from the garden
of Eden, was the Etz Daas
Tov VeRah. A person could learn the very same Torah
and become very wise and use it in a way like somebody that is crooked, to find
loop holes to exit from the mitzvos and the Divine design that H had for all Am
Yisrael and mankind. Those loopholes can actually be nooses around his neck. As
he is jumping out of a mitzvo, he has that feeling
that the noose is tightening.
Tragically,
when he doesn’t realize what he is doing, he thinks that rules are for fools,
that winning isn’t the only thing, it is everything. That he
who ends up with the most toys wins. His vision, NetVision,
is very much the American Dream, that if it feels good, it is good.
So,
by those standards, Coke, Cocaine and Rock and Roll wherever and whenever seem
to be the order of the day. We’ve seen such rapid times from World War II until
today, the degeneration and disintegration of a generation,
that the pace has been set for pursuing the body’s pleasures like the
Greeks and the Romans, the hedonists, all the different philosophers of the
world try to pursue the pleasure principle. Pleasure at all costs. Each one of
them has become extinct. The curators of the museums of those
ancient tribes that tried to lead the world and pursued all other value systems
other than the ratzon H’, the value of Torah.
Am Yisrael are the curators of those museums and Am Yisrael are the ones that
go those museums to contemplate, what was it that caused the giant nations, the
ancient Babylonians, the Ancient Greeks that filled the world with their
wisdom, brilliance, power, militarily, pathologically and physiologically and,
they sparkled for a moment and then like a fireworks display evaporated into
nothingness.
The
only nation continuing without signs of
weakening in its faith are those that are true to Torah who continue to blossom from strength to
strength throughout every generation, in spite of every great nation, all the
greatest nations in the world that have risen up to try to annihilate us,
immediately they attack the Jewish nation, they self-destruct. That is world
history in a capsule. And we land up being the curators of their treasures, of
their history and we have the merit of seeing where they went wrong. Where they
went wrong was not keeping 7 70s. Not a Chabad
message but an eternal message. What does that mean? Seven
mitzvos for the 70 nations.
When
I treated a minister this week I spoke to him and asked him, “have you heard of
the seven mitzvos of the Sons of Noah, the Sheva MItzvos Bnei Noach?”
He said, yes, of course. I said, do you know the power
of them? He said, I think so. They are given as good laws for people who would
like to aspire to them. I said “ they are the laws of
all mankind… If they keep them, it will go well with the whole of mankind. If
not, then just like the Generation of the Flood, they plunged into the flood of
destruction, a spiritual flood and a physical flood – that they will not survive.
Just like Noah’s generation, Noah pleaded. Noah was a lighthouse in a darkening
destination where each an every one for one hundred and twenty years had a good
laugh and then were heard no more.
So
we see, “See I present before you today a blessing and a curse. The blessing, that you
hearken unto the mitzvos of the Lord, your G-d that I command you today”.
It says the commandments are the mishpatim and the chokim. The mishpatim are those
commandments that you can understand. Such as, to have Derech Eretz (good maners), to
love our brother and to show him kindness, to do gemilus
hasadim (acts of kindness) especially for the person
on the receiving end. Then there are those chokim
that we don’t understand, Shatnez, mezuzah, tzitzit, Shabbos. The parts of Shabbos
that might not be readily inherent. Why can’t we do work if work is a
pleasure to us? Whay can’t we drive on Shabbos if
driving makes life easier? Why can’t we go to the beach if the beach isour personal enjoyment? There are some things that are technically
prohibited but you can get around it, but as we said before that is inviting a
noose around the neck. Ultimately it leads a person to their own destruction.
So,
by coming to enjoy Shabbos and coming to enjoy Torah, this is the way H
designed it, singing H’s praises with the Community. So that
you can enjoy the Shabbos meal, so that you can enjoy the family. Once
in the week a person tears away from their overwhelming busy schedule so that
one can actually enjoy and experience the company of ones wife and children.
That is the essence of Shabbos. That is what H designed Shabbos for, to shatter
the weekday chains and to release us from the computers, from the internet,
from the cell phones and to explore the holiness and sanctity of the Shabbos with
our families.
So,
as we go on in the parsha, I want to explore the Or HaChayim, what the Or haChayim had to say about Reeh. “Reeh Anochi nosen hayom”. There is
amazing insight into these words here, there is singular, there is plural,
speaking out and speaking in, and the Or HaChayim
really analyses this with tremendous insights.
“See I have given you this day”. Why does
Moses employ the term seeing? He could have used the language of a blessing.
Why
did Moshe describe himself as Anochi?
Why
does Moshe refer to the people in the singular, Reeh,
although in the whole parsha, he addresses them in
the plural?
The
wording is connected to the meaning that Moshe wants to convey throughout the
Torah. That the people should learn to set more store by the
blessings which will accrue to them in the next world, than the blessings that
accrue to them in this world.
In
other words, if a person is doing a mitzvoth only for
the reward, where the reward is not apparent to him he will soon stop doing it.
Don’t compare a small mitzvah against a large one, don’t judge them, we don’t
know the reward for these things.
We
saw in last week’s parsha, Ekev,
that those people who trample over the small mitzvos, the tragedy is, that
ultimately the nations of the world will trample over them, and their grave. So
it’s a very grave warning.
Take
a mitzvah like kibud Av Ve’Em.
This could take a lifetime and unlimited funds. This could also acquire a
person chayim aruchim, a long life. One
may be along life in this world, the other may be a
long life in the next world. We have no way of knowing. What we do know is ‘Ki Hem Hayenu VeORech
Yameinu’ This is your life
and the length of your days. Don’t underestimate, try and acquire every moment
as much as you can. This is the world of action.
Moshe was trying
to convince them to choose the eternal pleasures of the next world, rejecting
the fleeting pleasures of this world. Only one who has a clear picture of the
pleasures of both worlds can effectively convince others what to choose.
Without clarity of the next world, one doesn't truly know what to offer.
Without firsthand knowledge of the pleasures of this world, others will respond
that if he'd known what this world really had to offer, he'd be singing a
different tune.
To this Moshe
said "r'ay anochi"-
look at me! I am one of the wealthiest people with a clear picture of what this
world has to offer, and I ascended Har Sinai, entered the heavenly realm and
clearly saw what the next world has to offer. I, of all people, can tell you
what is bracha (blessing) and what is
klalah (curse). Choose wisely!
Moshe Rabbeinu was saying, don’t just
look at this world. Have double vision, look at the
world to come too. He had perfect faith in H’ and in the world to come.
People couldn’t
say he was hoping for Olam Haba
because he wasn’t satisfied with his material wealth. He had been very
successful. Still, he would only be believed if he could show that he had first
hand experience of Olam Haba.
He used the singular to remind the people that whatever is perceived by sight, is experienced equally by all the people. The other
senses can vary in depth. Every one of Bnei Ysirael saw Moses with their own eyes at Har Sinai.
When Moshe said “Reeh Anochi” he was telling
everyone, you can be just like me. Everything that I have accomplished, you too
can accomplish. The Rambam explains in Hilchos Teshuva ch 5 that everyone has the potential to become the equal of
Moshe Rabbeinu.
The Or HaChaim goes further and brings The Zohar
(Vol 3, p 273), which says that every Jew who is shomer mitzvos contains a spark of Moshe Rabbeinu. This is why he could talk to all the people in
the singular. They all shared his success and his experience and he saw himself
as one with them.
Moshe’s humility
meant that he couldn’t suggest, has veshalom, that he was giving the brocho.
The word Anochi alludes to the Aseres
Hadibros and the first commandment given by H’.. It is H’ who referred to Himself as Anochi who gives the brocho.
The Sifri emphasizes that the benefits of an aveira are short lived. Moshe Rabbeinu
said “habracha vehklala hayom”. Today you might think that you benefited from the aveira, but the blessing you think you got will soon be a
curse. It only exists ‘today’ and is gone tomorrow. Blessing in the world to
come lasts forever. The Sifri also explains that the
blessings may start with effort, which seems like a curse, but ends in
blessing. The opposite is true of the rosho.
The Ohr HaChaim offers a parable. A
father sent a son to a far-away land in order to procure some items that
weren't available locally. The son lived there for an extended period of time
and built many close relationships. Finally, the long awaited letter from his
father arrived, requesting him to come back home. On the day of his departure,
those who loved him come to the port to bid their farewell. There was much
sadness and tears, but not agony or anguish. The thought of someone tearing
himself up would have seemed preposterous. Why? Because the
child was returning to the parent. The time had come to take the return
journey back to his true home. The friends cried tears of sadness, realizing
that they will no longer see him, but that his existence continues. Tears
expressing the personal loss of not being able to maintain and build a relationship
are proper and justified. Bitter anguish is not. "Banim
atem laHashem Elokaichem!"
The Ohr Hachaim explains that the
Torah is teaching us that death is a loss to those that remain alive--not to
the one that died.
The son is not
lost. Those who had grown to know and love him are no longer able to see him
and to build the relationship further, but the son is not lost. On the
contrary, the son is returning home to his father. The thought of those friends
going ahead and gouging themselves over the agony of the son's departure is
preposterous. Sadness and a melancholy feeling of detachment are in order.
Gouging is definitely out!
"Banim a'tem laHashem
Elokaichem, {You are sons of
Hashem your G-d}." At 'death,' the person is simply returning to the Father.
The duration of that person's visit to this transient world has come to a
close. The time has come for the return trip--to return home. Therefore,
"Lo tisgo'd'du... l'mais
{do not gouge yourselves over a death}." Reacting in such a way really
contradicts our beliefs.
The
Or HaChayim suggests another pshat
for ‘Hayom’. At the end of last week’s parsha, Moshe assured the people that they would not only
inherit the land, but every place where they step foot will become theirs. This
went beyond the promise to Avrhaam, Yitzhak and
Yaakov. However, this carried a new responsibility, ‘hayom’.
The brocho and the klala. If they failed to perform H’s will, the
nations would be jealous of the land and the
Moshe
Rabbeinu was saying, don’t
just look at this world. Have double vision, look at
the world to come too.
In
conclusion, it says at the end of the parsha,
“Hearken to all the words that I command you in order that it will be well with
you and with your children after you, forever. So you do what is good and what
is right n the eyes of H your G-d”. To do what is right in the eyes of H’, all
of a sudden we get the new vision that it is not us looking out at the world,
it is H looking at us in His world. When we can constantly walk yahsar, bekoach, in the ways of
H’, then eventually we can get to a time that we say “shechecheyanu”.
The three times in the year that we say ‘shechecheyanu’
are the chagim (festivals). So at the end of the parsha, Reeh, it says something absolutely
amazing, that H’ requires of us that (Devarim 16, 16ff) “3 times a year, all
your males should appear before H’, your G-d, in the
place that He will choose. On the festival of Matza, on the festival of Shavuos,
and on the festival of Sukkos”. And this person, Am Yisrael, “shall not appear before H’ empty
handed”. The concept of appear is “yeraeh es penei H reikam”.
‘You shall not appear before H…”, or “you shall not be seen before H… empty
handed. Every one according to what he can give, according to the blessing that
H your G-d gives you”. So we see that this isn’t just a physical vision. This
is a vision that H can see what He gave us, H can see what we are giving back
to Him, and in truth what does H need from us? Absolutely
nothing. What does H give to us? Absolutely
everything. So then the question gets to be, how can we give something
back to H’? Its all H’s? So ultimately the vision that we have to have
is the vision of a parent, because only a parent can understand this. That if
he gave his little child everything, he gave him food, he gave him clothing, he
gave him sustenance, and took care of his health, got up early every morning
before the son, got him ready for school, made sure his meals were ready for
him, made sure his learning was perfect, he made sure everything in his life
was perfect. Then one day his son goes out with the pocket money his father
gave him and he buys for his father a present. What is that present worth?
Where did it come form and what is it worth? So this
is ultimately the vision that we should have. Of a father that loves his
children infinitely. That there is nothing in the world He wouldn’t do to
protect and bestow on His children the very best of everything. The tiny bit
that we give back to H is infinitely more precious than anything else He
created. This is a vision of 20:20 on the spiritual level. That is having thee
double vision, a vision of the physicality of this world, of the messages that
H sends these things to us in this world. And the real vision of being able to gve back a tiny bit to H, as an act of Modim
Anachnu Lach She’anachnu modem lach.
Have
a Great Shabbos.