Parashat: Re’eh

Parashat: Re’eh
Deuteronomy 11:26–16:17

“You shall not do everything that we are doing here today, with each person acting as what’s right in their eyes, for you have not come yet to the resting place, the portion that Adonai your God gave to you.”

— Deuteronomy 12:8-9

As the daughter of two lawyers, I have always loved rabbinic arguments — Talmudic discourse distilled down into “he said — he said” (because let’s face it, my voice wasn’t incorporated yet!) and with decisions made and with devil’s advocates and dissenting opinions displayed openly. One recognizable pattern that came from our rabbis came in the terms “l’chatchilah” (“from the outset”) and “b’di’eved” (“after the fact”). Our rabbis believed that ideally, from the outset you might have behaved in a preferred matter, but since/if you didn’t know, then after the fact, the way you acted is allowed.

In Parashat Re’eh, God immediately presents us with blessing and curse — from the outset, we know what we’re meant to be doing and dealing with. And yet, in these two verses, it’s clear that from a descriptive standpoint, each Israelite individually and independently may have been trying to do what they thought was right, without paying attention to the communal direction/effort as a whole. God tells us, look, right now, that’s okay — but, let’s be real, once we hit the Promised Land and have a real blueprint — we’re expected to start acting in tandem with our community.
These two verses can challenge our Reform sensibilities, wherein we make choices through the information we research or receive and where we greatly pride ourselves on our independent stands and our individual choices. And yet, as we continue through our seven weeks of consolation, we are reminded again and again, we do not exist in a vacuum, but rather in partnership with the people around us and working towards our own side of our covenantal relationship with God.

— Rabbi Amanda K. Weiss