Nancy Gould gave this d’var when she led the Sep. 2 Shabbat evening service.
This week’s parsha is Re-eh, which means “see.” It starts out with G-d telling the Israelites, “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse—the blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord your G-d; the curse if you disobey…” The people are to proclaim the blessings on Mount Gerizim, the curses on Mount Ebal.
When G-d gives the people a choice between the blessing or the curse, He is saying that Jews have free will. The choice between good and evil is theirs. But there will be consequences, depending on how they choose. It’s not by accident that Mount Gerizim, the mountain associated with blessings, is filled with lush vegetation, while Mount Ebal, the mountain associated with curses, is dry and barren. If we follow G-d’s laws, things will go well for us; otherwise, they will not. The Hindus call this “karma,” but it’s the same idea.
This gift of free will is so important in Judaism that we celebrate it every morning by reciting a special blessing, as part of the Shacharit service: “Baruch atah adonoy, elohanu melach ha’olam, asher natan lah’ sechvee veenah l’havcheen bain yom ovain lailah,” which means: “Praised by Thou, O Lord Our G-d, King of the universe, who has endowed the rooster with the instinct to distinguish between day and night.” Now, the word “sechvee” or “rooster” can also mean “mind” or “insight.” If you think of day as symbolic of “good” and night as symbolic of “evil,” the blessing may also be read as “who has given the mind the ability to distinguish between good and evil.”
The parsha also mentions the three Jewish festivals. The first of these is Pesach. Pesach celebrates the physical liberation of the Jews, when they were finally freed from slavery. Shavuot, the second festival, celebrates the spiritual redemption of the Jews, when they were given the Torah at Mount Sinai. It should be noted that one cannot have spiritual freedom without physical freedom. A slave by definition does not have free will. This probably explains why the idea of free will is so important to Judaism, and why we say a blessing thanking G-d for it every day.
Finally, we celebrate Sukkot, the third festival. The curious thing about Sukkot is that not only are we celebrating abundance—the time of harvest—but we are also acknowledging that nothing in life is guaranteed or secure. For eight days we dwell in a sukkah, a type of temporary house that is open to the elements. This is supposed to remind us of just how fragile our lives actually are. We have free will, but there will always be things that we cannot control.
The ancient Jews understood this. It’s not by accident that most of the Jewish holidays are also tied to agricultural events. Pesach occurs just as the spring seedlings are starting to come up. It is a time of great uncertainty because we still don’t know what is going to happen to those seedlings. Will they make it? There’s no way to know for sure. Shavuot is the time of the first fruits. Some plants have made it, but there is still a long way to go. Finally, at Sukkot, we may celebrate the full harvest.
Just before Sukkot, however, are the High Holidays. In ancient Israel, this was a time of great uncertainty. Unlike Egypt, which had the Nile, or Babylonia, which had the Tigris and Euphrates, Israel was completely dependent on the rains, which came in the fall. No wonder the ancient Jews felt the need to set aside a special time to pray and meditate and draw closer to G-d.
It’s not by accident that we read this parsha only a month or so before the High Holidays. During the High Holidays we are called upon to reflect upon our deeds, whether we have done good or evil, whether we will be inscribed in the Book of Life or the Book of Death, whether we will be blessed or cursed.
Earlier I talked about how we cannot be spiritually free without being physically free and how a slave has no free will. But even if we’re not literally enslaved, we can become enslaved by our passions and addictions. That’s one of the reasons for the laws of kashrut, which are also mentioned in the parsha. We can’t just eat whatever we want whenever we want it. We are only allowed to eat certain animals and then only after those animals have been blessed and slaughtered in a particular way. As Jews we are required to follow certain rules and live our lives a certain way—there is no other alternative.
The Indian leader Jawaharlal Nehru once said: “Life is like a game of cards. The hand you are dealt is determinism; the way you play it is free will.” We cannot control everything that happens to us, but we can control the choices we make. When G-d tells us that we have the choice between good and evil, the blessing or the curse, He is not threatening us. He is offering us a gift. That is free will—perhaps the greatest gift of all.
Shabbat Shalom.