The Power to Choose: A Founding Moment of Jewish Ethics
Aug 7, 2026 By Shira Billet | Commentary | Re'eh
Choice � between right and wrong � is the opening theme of Parashat Re檈h. 淪ee (re檈h), I place before you (lifneikhem) today blessing and curse. Blessing � if you heed God commands�; curse � if you do not (Deut. 11:26). This verse is a portal to the end of Deuteronomy: 淪ee (re檈h) I have placed […]
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How to Practice Faith
Aug 22, 2025 By Daniel Nevins | Commentary | Re'eh
Why, if this is so obvious, do most people expect that another proficiency will come quickly and without effort? I refer here to faith. Many people think that religious faith is something that one either has or doesn檛 have, and that it is acquired in an instant. You should just feel God presence the minute you open a prayer book or light the candles. We are impatient with faith and don檛 invest the effort needed to develop it. Popular stories of sudden conversions foster the expectation that faith is a gift requiring no effort.
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Petition or Protest
Aug 30, 2024 By Adam Zagoria-Moffet | Commentary | Re'eh | Rosh Hashanah | Yom Kippur
Our Sages saw Hannah as trying to trap God into offering blessing, and they interpreted the same from another unlikely context, one that also occurs during this month Torah readings. We read about the apparently bizarre mitzvah ofshilu檃h haken, the sending away of the mother bird.Deut. 22:6�7is the sole description of this shockingly precise mitzvah: 淚f you happen upon a bird nest while on the road, whether in a tree or on the ground, whether with chicks in it or still-unhatched eggs, and the mother bird is sitting on the eggs or chicks, you shall not take the mother with the young. Instead, chase away the mother bird and take the young攊n order that you be well and your days long.�
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To Know or Not to Know
Aug 11, 2023 By Malka Strasberg Edinger | Commentary | Re'eh | Tishah Be'av
The centralization of cultic worship is one of the major themes in the book of Deuteronomy. However, the place of that worship, the Temple, is described as 渢he place that God will choose,� with no mention of where that place is to exist. This week parashah, parashat Re檈h, introduces the theme that once in the Land of Israel, the Israelites are to worship their God in 渉amakom asher yivhar Hashem� (the place that God will choose). This vague phraseology, which only alludes to a specific place but does not specify where that place is, is repeated 21 times throughout the book of Deuteronomy, with 16 of those occurrences in our parashah alone.
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The Meaning of Repetition, Repetition
Aug 26, 2022 By David Zev Moster | Commentary | Re'eh | Shabbat Rosh Hodesh
When it comes to reading the Tanakh, much is lost in translation, so even a bit of knowledge of Biblical Hebrew can go a long way. Here is one grammatical insight into this week parashah, Parashat Re檈h. According to Deuteronomy 14:22, Israelite farmers must tithe the produce of their field 砖指讈谞指讛 砖指讈谞指讛, shanah shanah, which […]
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Can We Mourn Too Much?
Aug 6, 2021 By Katja Vehlow | Commentary | Re'eh
When someone dies, this week parashah tells us, we should not ritually cut ourselves or our hair. In other words: we should not mourn excessively.
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Gratitude During Challenging Times
Aug 14, 2020 By Malka Strasberg Edinger | Commentary | Re'eh
This week parashah begins with the verse专职讗值讛 讗指谞止讻执讬 谞止转值谉 诇执驻职谞值讬讻侄诐 讛址讬旨讜止诐 讘旨职专指讻指讛 讜旨拽职诇指诇指讛 變 / 淏ehold, I set before you today blessings and curses� (Deut. 11:26). Within the context of the biblical narrative, this verse refers to a choice given to the Israelites upon entering the Promised Land: they could either choose to follow God commandments and reap rewards, or not to follow God commandments and suffer negative consequences. The blessings and curses set before the Israelites are enumerated in Deuteronomy 27�28, and were read publicly upon entering the Land, as recounted in Joshua 8:30�35.
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Blood, Water, and Desire
Aug 30, 2019 By Marcus Mordecai Schwartz | Commentary | Re'eh
These days most observant Jewish women in North America do not soak and salt their own meat. What was once a common and familiar marker of Jewish kitchens, and a deeply gendered rite of passage for young Jewish women, has been professionalized and sequestered away from the eyes of most of those who cook and eat kosher meat. In the United States, the act itself is often performed by mostly non-Jewish workers under the supervision of Orthodox rabbis攁 largely male caste. The sounds, sights, and smells of this 渒ashering� process as performed today would seem strange, unfamiliar, and perhaps even repulsive to most Jewish North American women.
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