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Re'eh 5767

This week's parashah, Re'eh, presents before us the first set of the 170 mitzvot delivered in rapid-fire fashion the in the three central parashyiot of Devarim. These mitzvot center around sacrificial service, public idolatry, eating prohibitions, poverty and property, and the festival calendar. Woven through all the passages is one of the leitmotifs of Devarim "the place which I shall chose to make My Name dwell there"

The parashah is bookended (as is so often the case) by a keyword which returns at the end of the parashah transformed grammatically and conceptually. This word is Resh-Aleph-Hey - seeing. The word Re'eh is actually the first word of the parashah, and, as Menachem Kohn (son of R. Daniel - the rav of our yishuv - and Batya) pointed out in his Bar Mitzvah derashah this week, it is strange that we are told to see, but there doesn't seem to be anything to see! "See, I place before you today a blessing and a curse".

How do you see the blessing? Menachem drew our attention to Rashi's comment that the reference is to the invocation of the blessing and the curse, upon entering the land, at Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Eval, where the "blessers" and "cursers" would stand on each mountain. This is difficult, however, since Hashem says "today" and that even is still months, if not years away. Menachem then explained that the seeing is referring to a "way of blessing" and a "way of cursing". Just as one who walks a path doesn't look primarily at his feet, but sets his sights toward his goal, likewise, we are bidden, even as we are involved in each particular action, to set our sights toward the goal of drawing closer to Hashem. I've quoted the bar mitzvah boy somewhat loosely, though accurately, I hope, but now I'll head in a somewhat different direction.

The mitzvot in this parashah are for the most part "public" mitzvot. Things that are done properly by the people taken as a whole. The idolatrous paths we are particularly warned against are those involved false prophets and entire cities gone astray.

There is a seeing by the individual, and there is a seeing by the people as a whole. Let us consider the organ possessed by some creatures know as the compound eye. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about said organ:

A compound eye is a visual organ found in arthropods such as insects and crustaceans. It consists of one to thousands of ommatidia which are tiny independent photoreception units that consist of a cornea, lens, and photoreceptor cells which distinguish brightness and color. The image perceived by the arthropod is a combination of inputs from the numerous ommatidia, which are oriented to point in slightly different directions. Compared with single-aperture eyes, compound eyes have poor image resolution; however, they possess a very large view angle and the ability to detect fast movement and, in some cases, the polarization of light.


Used as a metaphor, the compound eye give a different picture, one which lacks the attention to detail of the normal eye, but picks up features inaccessible to the normal eye. Each of us is an ommatidium of the compound eye of our people. We pay attention to our own path, but we know that there is a seeing to which we can only contribute, not partake of, which steers our people on its path as moving toward the ultimate role of "a kingdom of priests and a holy people". Three times a year, we are reminded at the end of the parasha, we come together to Yerusalayim, the place where, Avaraham tells Yitzchak and all of us, G-d sees. And there, the Torah tells us - each one of us "sees" the face of Hashem".

NO! Not "sees" - that's impossible, if not blasphemous. Moshe asked to see Hashem's face, and Hashem responded, "No man may see Me and live!", Rather, while the word "yir'eh" (shall see), a transitive verb, is what is written, what is read is "yeraeh" (shall be seen).

Now, some have see this as a scribal attempt to protect the honor of Hashem and avoid theological error, especially in a parashah so concerned with idolatry. The way the verse is written, the ktiv with the little word "et" as an indicator of the direct object, makes it clear that we seeing Hashem. is the pshat. So what to do with the kri, the way it is read?

Ah, but the way a simple eye sees is not the way a compound eye sees. Each of us must contribute our "seeing" to the overall image. We do this by "being seen"! By being present with Hashem, by being "his eyes" in the world and bringing our "pictures" together in Yerushalayim so that the place can become its name, "wholeness of visiion", so that Hashem can see through the fleshy eyes of our lives joined together.

"Yera'eh kol zechurcha et p'nei Hashem E-lokecha', the gorgeous merging of individual and collective, of object and subject, of passive and active, of seeing and being seen - creates the face of Hashem in the world, a beautiful shining coutenance radiating from Yerushalayim, seeing though its being seen - a Face projected thorough the visionary meeting of Yisrael with each other, and thereby, with Hashem.

See ya!

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