Re'eh, רְאֵה  "See!"  Deuteronomy 11:26-16:17

See! You Can Change The Universe!

A Poetic Reflection On Parashah Re’eh*

And God said, “See, this day…,”

and there was sight that day

Israel saw with Torah observant eyes what God said,

when God said,

“I set before you blessing and curse”

The obedient child is filled with hope and faith and love

But the child who thinks obedience to God is slavery

is destined to be a self-slave

The self-slave can never free themselves

They are cruel masters and frightened slaves

Their only salvation can be through divine-soul redemption,

which is the act of divine loving chastisement

I will sing with David:

Why do the nations gather together like a violent mob,

with their people ruminating over empty schemes?

They have settled on their positions

The kings of the earth and the elite

establish alliances against Hashem

They position themselves against His Mashiach

Let us set ourselves free, they say,

from the moral restraints they have imposed upon us!

Let us break every tie that ties us to them!

The One who sits enthroned in heaven

made light of them forever with laughter

on the day when he personally gave a name to Isaac

But then the time would come

when He would express His anger in their presence

With His deep, heartbroken anger, 

He would unsettle them

I have anointed My king like a drink offering

upon Zion, My holy mountain!

I will recount the decree,

Hashem said to me,

Today, I have given birth to you

Make your request of Me, he said,

I will give you the nations as your inherited portion,

and the ends of the earth will be yours,

by right of your inheritance

You will storm them with a tribe of steel

And you will refashion them from shattered pieces

So pay strict attention, you kings!

Straighten out your judgments with your garments, 

you judges of the earth!

Serve Hashem as the God of Israel

with the fear that is found only in faith

And return in your orbit with a trembling faith

Get yourself ready and prepare yourself 

with a pure and humble heart,

lest He look upon you with displeasure

Lest your entrance into His presence proves disastrous,

and you falter in your steps,

from the mere glance of his holy countenance

Happy is everyone who trusts Him 

He is a refuge of just and righteous mercy

Israel saw and understood what God said,

I set before you a land existing in two universes

The covenant land that you will enter

is a bridge between two universes,

a universe of blessing and a universe of cursing

In the land into which you enter,

you can exchange

one universe for the other at any time

For this land is My land

I put my authority into your hand

in the land of the Creator of the heavens and earth

What takes place in this land is the holy foundation 

of My eternal creation

The one universe is called Gerizim

and the other is called Ebal

In the universe of Gerizim, in all you do 

I will agree with you,

All you do, I will do together with you, 

hand in hand, for it is my land and your land

In the universe of Ebal, you will only rely on yourself

and you will not follow My guidance

In the universe of Ebal, you will become lost from Me

Every way you turn will be the way of death

Then your neighbor will become a foreigner

The good you do will be turned to evil,

as when your first father, Adam,

exchanged the universe of Gerizim

for the universe of Ebal in this land

In that day people began to call upon the name of Adonai

Some presumptuously in order to invent idolatry

But some called out in the fear and hope in Hashem

They overheard the promise of the seed of the woman,

and they had courage to hope, although they were few

For these few,

living in that idolized world was like living in death

That torture felt to them like it would never end

Until God called Abraham…

Hashem called him out of the idolized world

Then hope began to heal life

because Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were in the world,

but were no longer of it

For God received their hope as prayer

and gave birth to it himself in the world

Back in the universe of Ebal,

they conquer with cursing

and they eat what is cursed

In the universe of Gerizim

the curse will be turned into blessing

Every step you take will be redeemed

You will build a city

where the voice of righteousness calls to you

from every street and every corner,

from the face of every stranger passing by

But the ways of the universe of Ebal,

that you have learned, 

so that its memory is in the cells of your flesh, 

that universe will still draw you and tempt you,

for its lawless freedom will be in the cells of you bones,

and you will neither hear a voice nor see a thing

when the ghost of Ebal will take you captive, 

unless you remember

that one who is your adversary you can redeem, 

to be your partner in repairing the world,

if you know that every soul is your neighbor

And then, when you remember Hashem

and that it is God who brings you to the land,

and you long with all your heart for His guidance 

as your father, Abraham, did,

when he exchanged the universe of Ebal

for the universe of Gerizim in this land,

when he trusted me with the life of his son in this land,

then when your soul cannot endure to be without Me,

Hashem says, I will take ahold of your hand

and I will teach you kindness,

and how to give power in charity to the impoverished,

so that you do not impoverish them anymore

The evil which you will have done will be turned to good

The twelve tribes of Hashem shall be one Jerusalem

All your learning will be wisely applied 

and you will build every highway of truth in the earth

And you will give birth to a global village of faith

and a universal city of eternal life

And we will walk together on the streets of that city,

says Hashem, and we will be together there,

resting in the rhythm of Jerusalem's heart,

according to our agreement

Selfish loves will never be found there

Holy love alone will breath there

We will visit together

in the halls of every moral victory 

at the time of universal celebration and song

All nations shall be your choir

Your lifeblood will be joy,

when you have turned the universe of cursing

into the universe of blessing in this land,

in this place of the Name of God

Without fail, you yourself shall show the kindness of God

to every living soul