Re’eh: Divine Belief

By Eric Lenefsky

Parshas Re’eh, and the following few parshiyos, represent a shift in Moshe Rabbeinu’s farewell address, from a speech of history and overarching values to a list of halachic minutiae. But before Moshe gets into the many mitzvos in our parsha, he says as follows: “ראה אנכי נותן לפניכם היום ברכה וקללה” - “Behold I am placing before you today blessings and curses.” Moshe goes on to say, if you keep the mitzvos, you'll get bracha, and if you don't keep the mitzvos, you'll get klalah, you will be cursed.

It seems like a very nice and neat binary, but the way Moshe presents it in the chumash doesn't read as cleanly. Moshe says, “את הברכה אשר תשמעו אל מצות ה' אלקיכם” - the bracha, when you listen to the word of God. Whereas by the klalah, Moshe says, “והקללה אם לא תשמעו”, and the klalah if you do not listen to the word of God. It’s not exactly parallel. Rashi says that it really means the same thing, but then why Moshe Rabbeinu doesn't present it to be that way. There are numerous ways to answer this question, but I'd like to present one based off of an answer I had to a different question.

There's a Mishnah, which we quote before a kaddish derabanan in shul sometimes. רבי חנניא בן עקשיא אומר רצה הקדוש ברוך הוא לזכות את ישראל לפיכך הרבה להם תורה ומצוות. Hashem wanted to give a lot of zechuyos, a lot of merits, to Bnei Yisrael, and therefore he increased the amount of Torah and Mitzvos that they have. At face value, this seems like a simple teaching and a good thing.

The Maharal in his fifth perek of Tiferes Yisrael points out an issue with this mishnah though. Every opportunity for Mitzvah is also an opportunity to not do a Mitzvah, to sin by not doing that Mitzvah. It's just as much as a zechus, as it is, per se, a stumbling block. This intensifies if you take into account that if you only have five mitzvos, it's pretty easy to do five things, whereas if you have 613 mitzvos it's very unlikely that you'll be able to do all 613 things. It seems like more mitzvos is really more of an opportunity for mistakes to be made, so why is it presented as such a merit?

The Maharal has a beautiful answer to this question, which can be discussed at another time. But I’d like to suggest as follows:

Hashem believes in the Jewish people. When it comes to His nation, His children, He is an optimist. Yes, there is also room to make mistakes when you have more Mitzvos, but Hashem believes in us, and Hashem believes that we can meet the challenge, that we are up to the task of doing Torah and Mitzvos. Therefore, it's obviously only presented as a positive thing. Perhaps we can use that same logic to answer our question over here.

Moshe Rabbeinu didn't want to write, if you do the mitzvos, then you get bracha. Because Moshe, like Hashem, believes in the Jewish people. He too is an optimist. He believes that the Jewish people will do the right thing. Therefore, he doesn't present it as an “if” but as a “when.” By the curses though, Moshe leaves room for doubt. He doesn't want to assume that Bnei Yisrael will necessarily mess up and be deserving of curses. Perhaps this belief, this optimism could explain the disunity in these two pesukim.

One of the mitzvos in this week's parsha is VeHalachta BiDrachav, to follow in God’s ways. What G-d does, you must try to do. We attempt to imitate God. Therefore, if Hashem believes in the Jewish people, if Moshe believes in the Jewish people, we must try our best to believe in the Jewish people, including ourselves. To only see the good in them and ourselves, to believe in them and ourselves, and to believe that they and we are up to the challenge. This really sets the theme for the rest of Re’eh, a parsha which at its core is a guide to creating a society centered around Yahadus in the land of Israel, in the land of Jewish people.

May we try our best, especially in this time, to be optimistic about the Jewish people, to believe in the Jewish people, and to believe in ourselves. Let us try to build that society, to build that place where we can live our values in their greatest form, where we can fulfill that which Hashem wants in th greatest way, and where we can self-actualize to the greatest extent. May we all be zoche to do so and with Hashem doing His part, may we see the rebuilding of the Beis Hamikdash with the coming of Mashiach, very soon.           

Have a great Shabbos!