Re'eh:  limits

The parshah is named  Re'eh: see.  Physiologically, seeing involves the process of perceiving borders, distinctions.  This is followed by an attempt to make sense of the input.   The problem of blurring of borders is a  subtheme  the parsha.  Sometimes the boundaries are imposed by the observer. 

In the first aliyah of the parsha, there is a verse that I find very strange. 12:4 is translated : "Ye shall not do so unto the LORD your God.". The preceding paragraph described the destruction of the native idolatrous institutions. Who needs a specific instruction not to do the same the The One Gd, the national Gd of the Israelites?

I think that this is a very practical instruction. Once the forces of iconoclasm are mobilized, it is hard to limit them, to keep them from attacking our own Gd and the institutions of our people. Iconoclasm is more common among Jews, and perhaps more important for Jews, than is faith.  A Jew that doubts Gd is not  as far from Judaism as is a Jew for Jesus. 

 

The question of the line between us and them  alsoapplies to political questions.  The teachings of universal compassion conflicts with  the commandment of conquest of the land . I think that, in our day,  compassion wins.