08-14-2025 Re’eh

The name of this week’s parashah is “Re’eh” (meaning: See!). You will find it in the Book of  Deuteronomy 11:26-16:17. This week’s section  continues with Moses’ great summation speech in  which he emphasizes that we are capable of bringing both blessings and curses into our lives and  the lives of others.  

The section begins with a strange Hebrew phrase: “Re’eh, Anochi noten lifnechem hayom brachah  uklalah/See, I am giving you today (right now) a  blessing(s) and a curse(s).” It is a powerful  statement and one that is not easy to translate into  foreign languages. The Hebrew reader will  immediately notice that the verb noten (give) appears as a singular command. It is as if Moses is  speaking directly and personally to each one of us.  To add to this verse’s intensity, the Bible then uses a  tense rarely used, what we might call the “divine present tense.” It is a tense that indicates a sense of  ongoing continuity, as if to say: every single day  blessings and curses, opportunities and missteps  are placed before you and now it is up to you to  decide what blessings and curses you choose. In  this speech, which was just prior to his death, Moses  reminds us that too often we are blind both to the  opportunities to which life provides us and to our  own personal failures and weaknesses. 

Moses’ soliloquy emphasizes a need for personal  responsibility; it also warns us not to allow anger or  other emotions to blind us to life’s joys. Once again,  the text subtly reminds us that Judaism is not a  religion of submission or fatalism, but a religion that  teaches us that we are G-d’s partners in life and part  of that partnership implies that it is we who must  determine the quality of our life. 



This week’s parashah teaches us that when things  go wrong in our lives, we need to start the healing  process by asking ourselves: where did I fail? In the  future what can I do differently to change the  direction of my life? Are there blessings in my life  that I am failing to see? 

From this week’s parashah we also learn that that to  be an adult is to view the world through reality rather  than make-believe. How many of us take the time to  realize that there are blessings even when life  seems harsh? Too few of us know how to  appreciate the blessings that come into our lives,  and to realize that our lives are gifts of G-d that  should not be taken for granted?  

It is in these weeks leading to the High Holidays  when we begin to examine our lives and remember that we dare not be so self-centered that we fail to  see life’s blessings and often fail to recognize our  own part in the problems that occur in each of our  lives? Do we take our life’s blessings for granted  and blame others for our own failures? Have you  begun the process of taking an inventory of your  life?