Re'eh: Loyalty

This parsha  moves from the auditory (shema) to the visusal.  Up until now, in  Devarim, this book of summary, Moshe has instructed us to listen  and obey.   He has emphasized that the  core pronouncement, Gd's communication at Sinai, had no visual component, there was nothing to be seen. That which is heard  can imply direction, but not location.  Re'eh, see!, implies place; location becomes important.

What Moshe tells the people to see is not physical.  It is imagined: the  blessing and curse that depend upon obedience to what they have heard.  In these realms - the auditory, the imagination -everything is portable, not bound to a location. The introduction of the chosen local changes the nature of ritual - it adds a dimension of loyalty, it binds the service to a Divinely ascribed national consensus, a capitol.

Eating meat was the great communal meal.  Before refrigeration, preservation of meat was difficult or impossible. The feast avoided wasting the meat. Slaughtering an animal is a significant act. All of it must be used in the best possible way.

 The feast built community, common purpose, reciprocity.  It built a tribe.  Now, the people are instructed to build a nation.  The festival could only be at the capitol,  Gd and the Nation would be part of the celebration.  Defection was forbidden.  All would declare their loyalty in word and deed. 

Keeping the nation together means resisting change. Ignore the evidence.  If the seer accurately predicts events, but denies the core belief, be loyal, stick with the faith.  What modern theory will be the phlogiston  of tomorrow?  How will the next data set impact on the predictions of AI? I have sen the scientific models evolve . In cancer, where people are desperate for a model, we have evolved from embryology to histochemistry, to DNA mutation analysis , to signal transduction, toAI, to... 

We have seen the sins of loyalty.  Stalin, Hitler, ....Loyalty is not enough.  The mission must be right, and we cannot trust the intuitions of our time. Do it right.  Do right.