Parashat Re’eh covers a wide-ranging set of laws and rules
for the Israelites once they enter the land. First, we are told that the people
will pronounce words of blessing and of curses from the top of two mountains
when they cross over the Jordan river into the land.
Then we have laws that reflect main principles of
Deuteronomy – strict monotheism and the centralization of worship in one
location where God will cause God’s name to dwell.
We are told to destroy all sites where idolators used to
worship (those idolators whom we have already conquered and dispossessed).
According to Deuteronomy, our people up until now have worshiped God at various
places. When they enter the Land they are only allowed to worship God at one
central location where God will choose to “establish His name.” Because many
people will live a significant distance away from this place, the laws about
slaughtering for meat are being amended. You no longer have to bring every
domestic animal you want to eat to the sanctuary first for slaughter. But you
must not eat the blood – pour it out on the ground like water. Because “the
blood is the life.”
We are warned to protect ourselves from seduction into
worshiping other gods by false prophets, dream-interpreters, and even our own
family members. God is testing our loyalty through them. They must be put to
death. If a town has turned away from God, we need to kill all the inhabitants
and destroy the town.
Along the same theme of setting ourselves apart from other
peoples, we then have laws of mourning and of kashrut. We are told not to follow
the ways of the other peoples, because we are a consecrated people “am kadosh.”
The next section of laws deals more with how we are to treat
the poor in our midst. Every seventh year all debts are remitted. We are
commanded to help our needy kinsman by giving and loaning to him readily.
Included here are laws of indentured servitude and slavery. A postscript tells
us to sacrifice all male firstlings. But if it has a defect, you do not
sacrifice it but eat it in your settlement – but remember again to pour out the
blood first.
Lastly, we have the laws of the Passover sacrifice, of
Shavuot and Sukkot, the three pilgrimage festivals, and we are commanded to
rejoice!
One of the questions I have this year is about the opening
of the parasha – How are we to discern between blessing and curse? Is it so
simple to distinguish between these phenomena in our lives?
I also want to spend some time on the section that deals
with the poor in our midst. I’ll bring you a section of Talmud that I studied
this summer that riffs on the verse in our parasha which says that we must
provide “sufficient for his need,” meaning the need of the poor person. The
rabbis discuss at length what “sufficient” actually means, and whether to use
an objective or subjective standard for determining this.
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