Rabbi Winston: Parshas Re’eh – “See” the Difference Between Them . . .

 See, I set before you today a blessing and a curse… (Devarim 11:26)

THIS SHABBOS IS Shabbos Mevarchin, because next Thursday and Friday is Rosh Chodesh Elul, b”H. It’s when we begin our ascent to the summit, to Rosh Hashanah and the 10 days of repentance. The Ashkenazim won’t begin saying Selichos until the week before Rosh Hashanah, but the Sephardim will begin right after Rosh Chodesh. Everyone will begin blowing shofar daily.

This week’s parsha, about blessings and curses, is a good start. Moshe is reiterating that our fate is in our hands. We can get angry at G–D for anything bad that happens to us, but it would be misdirected. According to the Torah, we have only ourselves to blame for what goes wrong in our lives. 

The only problem with this is that the Talmud, on Shabbos 156a, says that we are also affected by the sign under which we are born, even the day of the week. And even though the Talmud concludes that a Jew is NOT affected by mazel, Kabbalah explains that this is only partially true. Through the learning of Torah and the performance of mitzvos a person can mitigate their mazel, but not cancel it out completely. 

This means that from birth, some people will have an easier spiritual go at it than others and, indeed, we find that to be true. We may be born with equal rights, but we’re not born with equal abilities or family settings. So many people seem to fight off a curse before they have even had a chance to do anything bad enough to warrant it. Other people who seemingly deserve to be cursed seem to swim in a sea of blessing.

In fact, the Talmud even says:

Rabbi Meir said…[G–D did not reveal to Moshe the ways in which He conducts the world], as it says: “And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious,” even though he is not worthy, “And I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy” (Shemos 33:19), even though he is unworthy. (Brochos 7a)

This would seem to contradict what the Torah has just said. You can do the blessing thing and maybe still get the curse. Or, a person may be worthy of curse and still get the blessing. It’s G–D’s call, G–D told Moshe on top of Mt. Sinai. If he could not fathom it, how can we? 

We don’t have to. We just have to know that whatever G–D decides to do in any situation, it is always going to be the JUST thing. What we may not be able to understand is how what WE are seeing is that JUST thing. But we have to know with a complete heart that it is, and do OUR part to allow that justice to be clear to all.

After all, when G–D hides His justice from man, there is a price to be paid. Not too many people start off with the assumption that it still has to be fair, and then take the time to work out how. They usually go by what they see, and judge G–D accordingly. They lose faith, hope, and eventually morality. Why try to be good if being good doesn’t work in your favor in the end?

Look how many people enjoy seeing the bad guy “get it” in the end (if not earlier). Even people who consider themselves an atheist or agnostic still enjoy seeing good rewarded and bad punished. They may not accept the idea of Torah laws, but they do accept the idea of laws that punish offenders. When they see people whom they define as “good” suffer, and people they call “bad” prosper, it only reinforces their belief that Divine justice does not exist.

As one person put it to me recently, “There are people out there earning billions of dollars, while I barely earn thousands. And they’re using their money to support organizations that the Torah might call ‘evil,’ whereas my money would support just the opposite. It can certainly be disheartening, and would be, if I did not keep reminding myself that, somehow, giving THEM the money and not ME is better for the goals of Creation…and for ME! But it would sure help if G–D, every one-in-a-while, would show me HOW!”

Moshe Rabbeinu had felt the same way, as Rebi Meir pointed out, which is why he asked G–D about it. He was not answered though, at least not in any complete way. It was for the same reason that people walk out of a movie, in which all the good guys win and all the bad guys don’t, deeply satisfied. They feel as if all the right pieces have fallen into their right places, when in fact nothing really has changed.

Movies and life have different objectives. Movies seek to be entertaining so that people will pay to see them, and make those involved in their production rich. For the most part, references to right and wrong, especially right being victorious over wrong, is because that is what sells. All that the movie is designed to accomplish is the flow of the money, from the movie-goer’s wallet to the production company’s purse.If that happens, then the movie has done its intended job.

Life is vastly different. The goal of life is tikun, first personal rectification and then world rectification. All references to ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ are not purely for entertainment purposes, but to inspire us to pursue the former and to rid the world of the latter. There can be no artificial or premature celebration of this happening; there is nothing to celebrate until it is done, and it doesn’t get done unless WE do it.

It is easy to forget this when our own personal lives reflect the right way of life, to some degree. We might be living by Torah, learning it and performing its mitzvos. We might even be doing it for the right reasons, and teaching our children to do the same. There might even be something Messianic about the world in which we live today, seeming far more idyllic than in previous generations. This can cause us however to forget just how much the world is not where it ultimately needs to be. 

Hakol LO b’seder.

This certainly becomes clearer when the wrong people seem to be successful, and even more clear when they use their success in ways that are counter to the goals of Creation. Yes, intellectually, we know that this can never be the case, that G–D ALWAYS exercises judgment and everything always is for the sake of the perfection of Creation. But emotionally, we don’t get to SEE that, a MERIT that we lose when we stop taking the blessings and curses of life seriously. 

In other words, when Moshe Rabbeinu told the Jewish people, “SEE, I set before you today a blessing and a curse…” it was a double message. The obvious part was, keep Torah and earn the blessing. Stay away from sin and you stay away from the curse. 

The less-obvious part was the “See” part. Moshe Rabbeinu was telling them, “See…how you can SEE the difference between the two of them now. That is a gift, because it will make it easier for you to follow G–D, to believe in His providence, to maintain hope, and be satisfied with life. You don’t want to see what the world looks like when that is not the case!”

That is when bad people prosper, and good people suffer. That is when people start to question the reality of G–D, and have no problem doing evil because they live with the impression, that they can get away with just about anything. And that only drives the people who know better to anger and frustration. It certainly does not make life very satisfying which, at this time of year, is wake-up call to get real with life, and to start doing whatever we can to rectify it. 

We’ll be judged for THIS, in particular, come this Rosh Hashanah, b”H. We might as well start working on it now.