See the Blessing!
Being able to acknowledge what we have in life is itself a blessing.
Parashat Re’eh 5771
A few moments ago, the cantor chanted birkat ha-hodesh, a special blessing said on the Shabbat before the new moon to announce the advent of the coming month. Our Hazzan sings the blessing so beautifully. I happen to know it is one Cantor Goldstein’s favorite things to sing. And, I know that many of you love hearing him sing it… I like it too, but hearing him sing the blessing for Rosh Hodesh this time made my heart sink. You see, this time, the blessing is for the month of Elul. Elul is the month preceding Rosh Hashanah. On Tuesday it will be Rosh Hodesh Elul, which means that we have just one month till Rosh Hashanah! For rabbis and cantors and people who work at synagogues, Elul is crunch time. There is so much to do and so much work ahead. I don’t know what Rabbi Dollin is planning, but I haven’t got a clue what I want to say in my sermon this year. If you have any ideas, I’m open to suggestions.
But, Elul is supposed to be much more than crunch time for rabbis. Elul is also a time when we as Jews are supposed to be preparing ourselves spiritually for the High Holy Days. It is a time when we are supposed to be taking inventory of the year that has passed and seeking to repair ourselves and our relationships. Elul is a time of taking stock.
Parashat Re’eh, which we read this morning, always falls on the Shabbat before Rosh Hodesh Elul. And Re’eh is an appropriate parsha to be reading as we prepare for the Days of Awe – the Yamim Nora’im. I want to draw our attention to the very beginning and the very end of the Parsha because it seems to me that the opening words and the closing words serve as book ends to an important idea we should be thinking about as we prepare our hearts for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
The Parsha begins with the word Re’eh, which means “See.” Re’eh Anochi noten lifneichem hayom brachah u’klalah. See, this day I set before you blessing and curse: blessing if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I enjoin upon you this day; and curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God… (Deut. 11:26-28).
In this passage, Moses is addressing the people of Israel, charging them with responsibility to observe God’s law. But it seems odd that he opens by saying “see.” Perhaps it’s simply a verbal habit. We all have them. In fact, one of my verbal habits when I’m arguing a point is to say “look.” When I’m listening, I often say “I see.” Someone once told me that it’s because I’m a visual thinker.
But, we have to assume that for Moses this is more than a verbal habit. One of the principles of Jewish Bibilical interpretation is that there are no throw-away words in the Torah. Nothing is coincidental. Every word is there to teach us something. So the question is, what is it that we are supposed to see? The verse tells us to see the blessing and curse that God sets before us. What is it that we are to look at and see?
This Torah portion is largely about how we are supposed to behave as a people when we enter the land of Israel. And, one of the recurring themes in this parsha is the requirement that we show gratitude for what God gives us and that we should be happy with our lot. Several times in the matter of a couple of chapters, the Torah commands us to be happy.
The parsha closes with a reiteration of the holiday cycle. The closing verses say: “Three times a year every person is to appear before the Lord your God in the Place that He will choose – on the Feast of Passover on the Feast of Shavu’ot and on the Feast of Sukkot. They shall not appear before Adonai empty (Lo ye’ra’eh et pnei adonai reikam) but each with what his hand can give, according to the blessing that the Lord your God has given you.” (Deut. 16:16-17).
The simple meaning of the verses is that when you come up to Jerusalem for the pilgrimage festivals, you should bring an offering. But, the Torah could simply have said that. Besides, it’s pretty obvious. Can you imagine trekking for days up to Jerusalem and turning to your spouse and asking, “honey, did you bring the goat?” Instead, there’s a much deeper meaning here and I think these verses come to answer the question we started with at the opening of the parsha: what is it exactly that we are supposed to see when it says to see the blessings?
Our sages teach that the closing words of this parsha point to three imperatives. The first is not to come before God empty. Lo ye’ra’eh et pnei Adonai reikam. Contextually, it means, don’t come empty-handed, but it literally says, don’t appear before God empty. How often do we stand before God feeling empty? Why is it so often that we feel we are lacking? There are a lot of people in this world that you could say are in a state of lack. I guarantee you that none of them are in this room today. By virtue of the fact we are here right now means none of us is lacking. There are billions of people in this world that have less than even the least among us. We are truly blessed and privileged. But it isn’t just the material things that we have. I think there’s also another meaning. When the Torah says don’t stand before God empty, I think it also is talking about our attitude and our disposition. I think it’s also talking about our capacity to feel full. It’s talking about our capacity for recognizing the blessings in our life. And that leads to the next phrase. “Each one [of us] is to bring whatever we can give.”
No two people are the same and we each have unique gifts, talents, capacities, and possessions. The only thing God expects of us is that we recognize what we have and that we are willing to share some of it with the world. And that brings us to the third qualification: The torah says we are to bring, “according to the blessing that Adonai your God has given you.” The Torah is saying to us to see that ultimately, our gifts come from God. As much as we have earned what we have with the work of our hands, we have to recognize that it all comes from God; that our very existence is a gift. It teaches us that our gifts do not belong to us but rather they flow through us. And the commandment to offer up from what we have is a lesson that teaches us that none of us is empty. That each one of us has resources, talents, abilities, capacities that are a gift from God and therefore it is our responsibility to share them.
As we approach the Days of Awe we are reminded to look at what we have and feel grateful for it and be willing to share some of it. The same goes for Teshuvah, for the work of repentance and repair we are supposed to be doing at this time of year. Parashat Re’eh teaches us that none of us is empty. Each of us has the capacity to effect good in the world and that even the smallest acts have consequence and importance. Each of us is capable of making a positive contribution to those around us and to the world in which we live.
The parsha opens by asking us to look at the blessing and the curse. I’ve talked about the blessing. The blessing is to recognize what it is that we have. So, what’s the curse? The curse is when you look at your life and all you can see is emptiness. If all you can see is the emptiness, it means you’ve chosen the curse. God says, “look!,” “Re’eh!”, see the blessing and not the curse! We all have lack. We all have experienced loss and pain… but we are not empty. None of us stands before God empty. If you acknowledge that you’ve been given much and that you have what to give to this world, what to bring before God… if you believe that your life matters and that what you do for others matters, then you are truly blessed.
As we enter this month of Elul, may we be able to see the blessings in our life. And when we gather here for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, may we stand before God full of blessing, full of potential, full of what to give in the year to come. Shabbat Shalom.
Comments are closed.
