Re’eh: try it and see

 Re’eh: try it and see

The parsha opens with רְאֵה: re'eh: see! It then proceeds to tell the reader to see a blessing and a curse that is laid before him.

רְאֵ֗ה אָנֹכִ֛י נֹתֵ֥ן לִפְנֵיכֶ֖ם הַיּ֑וֹם בְּרָכָ֖ה וּקְלָלָֽה׃ 

 See, this day I set before you blessing and curse:

This is a challenge to our understanding. It instructs us to see something that is not visible. These instructions would be unintelligible to a machine, the machine would declare an  error: one cannot see  blessings or curses . They are not visible objects

This opening statement contrasts with the mitzvah to deny any visuals when Gd spoke with the nation at Sinai. 

וְנִשְׁמַרְתֶּ֥ם מְאֹ֖ד לְנַפְשֹׁתֵיכֶ֑ם כִּ֣י לֹ֤א רְאִיתֶם֙ כׇּל־תְּמוּנָ֔ה בְּי֗וֹם דִּבֶּ֨ר יְ' אֲלֵיכֶ֛ם בְּחֹרֵ֖ב מִתּ֥וֹךְ הָאֵֽשׁ׃ 

Take therefore good heed to yourselves; for you saw no manner of form on the day that the Lord spoke to you in Ḥorev out of the midst of the fire:— 4;15

 Clearly, this re'eh of our parsha  does not  mean the usual, physiological  vision that involves the neural connections between the eye, the retina, optic tract and the occipital cortex of the brain . Perhaps re'eh is better translated: imagine, generate the image. There is no object to be seen, only memories, ideas, dreams that can be synthesized into a vision.

In medical school, I had the privilege of attending a lecture by Eric Kandel, a Nobel prize winning neuroscientist.  The title of the lecture was: "Seeing is believing but touching is the real thing."  The lecture dealt with the complexity of the visual pathway in the brain.  The points of sensation of light in the retina are processed into lines and the lines are eventually  turned into faces. The brain is preprogrammed to try to make faces out of incomplete information.   Vision, according to Dr Kandel,  is always an amalgam of what is there and what we think should be there. The re'eh of our parsha is pure belief; there is  no external visual sensory input. It is a seeing that is purely believing. 

This is how we see the future. Imagination, based upon deduction and dread and hope generates possible  scenarios. In Pirkei Avoth 2:9,  Raban Yochanan ben Zakai asks  his five students to describe  the    דֶרֶךְ יְשָׁרָה שֶׁיִּדְבַּק בָּהּ הָאָדָם , the true path to which a person should cleave. Rabbi Shimon answers: הָרוֹאֶה אֶת הַנּוֹלָד. haroeh eth hanolad, one who sees the  products  of their actions.  This is a  seeing of what is not (yet) there. This is a synthetic vision that combines experience, calculation and honesty. A process that recognizes  the complexity of the consequences of actions and realizes how what is born differs from what is conceived.

 In the parsha, Moshe clarifies the consequences of taking  those paths. Gd will reward doing good; and punishment will devolve from doing bad. 

The way that blessing and curse are laid out is very telling.  The following verse reads:

אֶֽת־הַבְּרָכָ֑ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר תִּשְׁמְע֗וּ אֶל־מִצְוֺת֙ יְ

a blessing, אֲשֶׁ֣ר , asher ,that [not if], you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day:

and 

וְהַקְּלָלָ֗ה אִם־לֹ֤א תִשְׁמְעוּ֙ אֶל־מִצְוֺת֙

and curse, im, if, you do not obey the commandments of your Gd

 Rashi recognizes that there is an issue. ( Rashi only comments if an issue exists) :

 את הברכה. עַל מְנָת אֲשֶׁר תִּשְׁמְעוּ:

THE BLESSING — with the condition that you should obey

 

If Rashi had meant that we simply translate asher as "if" this time, he would have used the word 'אם' "im", the same word used in the next sentence in the text which always means "if."( This point is made by Eliahu Mizrachi, quoted by the Gur Arye. In Genesis where says asher which should be translated as "if. " There Rashi uses im. )

 The  Gur Arye ( Maharal of Prague) , commenting on this Rashi,  points us to Gittin 74 that elucidates  the meaning of al menath.  Al menath is a purchase on credit. The reward is given in advance, assuming the fulfillment of the condition that acquires it will occur. 

Onkolos, official translation of Torah into Aramaic, renders the verse: 

יָת בִּרְכָן דִּי תְקַבְּלוּן לְפִקּוּדַיָּא דַּיְ

      ... The blessing—that you accept  the commandments of Hashem

This translation is compatible with Rashi: the blessing is bestowed pending payment

Several commentators over many generations express this idea: the observance is itself a reward. 

       IBn Ezra (12th Century)

כי בשמעכם הנה אתם מבורכים

Since you have listened, behold you are blessed

to 

     Malbim (19th  Century)

א"כ זה עצמו מה שתשמעו אל מצות ה' הוא הברכה,

 Therefore that, itself , that you keep the commandments of Gd , that is the blessing.

Or HaChaim (18th Century) 

הוא אשר תשמעו כי השמיעה בתורה הוא תענוג מופלא ומחיה הנפש כאומרו (ישעי' נ''ה) שמעו ותחי נפשכם,

For the observance of the Torah is a wonderful pleasure and awakens the soul. 

Rav Hirsch (19th Century) 

The fulfillment of the divine commandments is itself a true part of the blessing, which not only follows obedience, but already begins its realization in obedience and the faithful fulfillment of one's duty.

Every year, when I read this sentence, with  its asher, I think about my father, wearing his tefillin at morning services in his synagogue in Florida. This was, ultimately, what he had wanted to do for so many years: just go to shul, put on tefillin and daven. What a complex, al menath, conditional payment. After all he had been through, all the years he could not daven wearing tefillin :  Soviet soldier, prisoner of war, hunted Jew, slave in death camp, displaced person, refugee, ... this was what he wanted to do. This was his pleasure; his longed for reward. 

Another verse always strikes me in this parsha:

{ח} לֹ֣א תַעֲשׂ֔וּן כְּ֠כֹל אֲשֶׁ֨ר אֲנַ֧חְנוּ עֹשִׂ֛ים פֹּ֖ה הַיּ֑וֹם אִ֖ישׁ כָּל־הַיָּשָׁ֥ר בְּעֵינָֽיו׃ 

You shall not act at all as we now act here, every man as he pleases,

 It is not exactly the opposite of the choice that opens the parsha. Even if we all agree that we will go for  the blessing, we may differ in how to get there. Conflict will now be  resolved into a single, unifying decision

This process of deferring strong opinions to the collective is  a key part of marriage. Marriage is, in part, the privilege and pleasure of considering the other, and sacrificing  what you think you would like -  for the common good. It is a part of  the blessing of  cooperation

This week, Karen and I sponsored the kiddush  because it is our  fortieth wedding anniversary. We are proud to celebrate at Ohr Chadash, a place that sprang from our common values, an example of many different ideas coming together, all for the sake of blessing, bracha. 

Often the only way to know the bracha is to accept the rules, suppress the hubris, and see how it works out.