Deuteronomy Cycle Four Re'eh

Re'eh

Re’eh begins with action. We are to place our blessings on Mt Gerizim and our curses on Mt Ebal. And we are to do this before we enter the Promised Land. Since curses and blessings are hard to place anywhere…they are not solid… they both suddenly have something in common. They are both objects of what seems to be an impossible task…at least in a quotidian sense. We can give someone a blessing and/or a curse. The idea of grouping curses/blessings however and going through the action of climbing a mountain with them in hand….in clay pots, baskets, or plastic bags…you name it…is a challenging visual. Human we are and human we must be to read the words. Spirits we are and spirits we must be to mix some God-essence…maybe some mud and salt of the Dead Sea… with the letters themselves and raise the meaning to symbolize something more. Here, in my opinion, the symbol revolves around a purification that is necessary in order to be able to (yes) see. We are, after all, doing this together.

See what though? See the place of God’s choosing. See ourselves (together) as that place.

So then, what do we need to do to arrive at that vision and exquisite radiance, the core of God? We need to first recognize the balance and similarities of curses and blessings, of good and evil, darkness and light. We do this by discerning between them, knowing one from the other and accepting with equanimity both energies in our day to day lives. Our good fortune (we begin to realize) is not our own but a balance to misfortune manifested in our human bodies. We are neither good or bad as determined by curses/blessings. We (as a group) are the receiving vessel. When we begin to judge ourselves by our good or bad fortune we suddenly lose track of the fact that we are merely receptacles of God-happenings. We begin trusting and banking-on our personal and subjective vision…instead of divine equanimity. This in itself is another curse…that of ignorance…and can be dealt with the same way. Once we finally see ourselves as a vessel, we no longer get tangled in the self-blame self-doubt group-blame trap. We become free.

The balance necessary to obtain that equanimity and soul-freedom is part of the bone-structure of Torah. For example, we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. But just as important (according to Hillel) we are not to do to hateful things to our neighbor. The first infers a blessing. The second places up a defining boundary between the blessing and the curse. Another example can be found when we compare the prayer Elohai (that can be found in the Koren Siddur immediately following the Amidah) and the opening prayer of the Amidah itself. The latter is a plea to God that He may open my lips so that my mouth may declare Your praise. The former is a private meditation composed by the fourth century scholar Mar son of Ravina…in which the opening line entreats God to tell us what not to say in the presence of others. The blessings of the Amidah themselves are placed between those two prayers. Light and healing…the focus of the Amidah according to Talmudic scholars… is not transmitted through the power of a blessing (nor darkness through the power of a curse) but through a crack in our reality created when both merge and expand. Think of the crack in the rock where Moses can see God….where we can see God as well.

Finally we want to remember this: Our work to define and discern and to do the physical manual guttural painful labor of discerning and raising the curses/blessings is not so we can sit all mighty among the blessings but so we can purify ourselves beyond both. This is the state of mind we must be in so that entry into the Promised Land is even possible.

When I was standing at the Dead Sea today this is what I was thinking. The sting of the salt, the weight of the mud, the clean spread of white and blue space. We can’t really know who we are until we don’t know. We can’t be with God until we reject ownership of all blessings and curses alike.

As we read in the Wisdom of Ben Sirach (2:17-18) They who have awe in God prepare their hearts and humble their souls in His sight saying: We will fall into the hands of God and not into the hands of men.

How do we bring this to the here and now? Remember this: If you love them when they say you are good, you have to love them when they say you are bad. Don’t use judgment to love. Just love. Empty your mind from what you think should happen, what others think is right or wrong, good or bad. Be like the God seekers of Qumran or the Masada. Canonize your own heart-scriptures. Accept all with a smile. See yourself as a receptacle of God’s light. Do the inner work and lead your camel up the mountains and pile blessing after blessing and curse after curse upon them. Know what is what. And when you are done, stand there naked and strong, real and cleansed before the mountains and the desert and then laugh. Laugh-see as body. Laugh-see as soul. Love life. Love beyond-life. Lay in the mud. Float in the sea. Fill your body with the awe of vivid reflection. Shine the reflection as transmission. Know that this is Torah. Know who you are.