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26

Friday, August 29, 1986

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Looking Through Eyes
Of Faith Or Despair

RABBI MORTON F. YOLKUT

28200 W. EIGHT MILE ROAD
FARMINGTON HILLS. MI 48024
(313) 471-5353

METRO - DETROIT'S NEWEST
NISSAN DEALERSHIP
SALES, LEASING, PARTS & SERVICE

TORAH PORTION

he student of Hebrew
grammar will note
something strange in
the very first words of this
week's Torah portion. The
text reads: Re'eh anochi
notain lifneyhem hayoin
bracha u'kelalah, which
means: Look, I give you this
day a blessing or a curse
(Deut. 11:26). The problem in
the text is that re'eh is
singular and lifneyhem is
plural. It is as if it is said:
Each of yoU. look and you will
see either the blessing or the
curse.

What this verse suggests is
that it is up to us to decide
what we see in life. We can
look at the very same cir-
cumstances and one will see
in it life and blessing and an-
other death and damnation.
One will see in it challenges
and the other futility. Ex-
perience is not so much what
happens to us but how we
perceive what happens to us.
The same reality that dis-
courages and depresses one
person brings out the very
best in another.
Legion are the examples
that illustrate this truth.
Consider the reactions of the
European community during
the dark days of the Nazi
Holocaust. When so many
postwar Europeans were
asked why they did not lift a
finger to help their doomed
Jewish neighbors, many of
them answered, "We saw
what was happening to the
Jews, but what could we do?"
When the few righteous gen-
tiles were asked why they
risked their lives to help and
even save their neighbors,
they replied, "We saw the
Jews and what else could we
do?"
One person looks at Jewish
life today and says "See how
vacuous it is, how superficial
and vain and empty it is."
iother looks at the same
Jewish life and says "See how
inspiring it is, or if not, how
much better it can be made,
what a challenge it is to
change it and improve it."
And so it is with all of life.
Yes, we are realists and we
know that some situations
are worse than others, that
evil is real and deep and
painful at times. But what
really counts the most in life
is not what happens to us but
how we respond. Some are
blessed with the ability to
find reasons for joy and
gratitude wherever they look,
and some are cursed with the
ability to find reasons for un-
happiness and discontent in
whatever they see and ex-
perience.
Permit me a story that I

Morton F. Yolkut is rabbi at
Cong. B'nai David.

think documents the point.
An immigrant tailor worked
long and hard and saved for
years to send his only son to
college. The young man came
home at the end of his
freshman year and jubilantly
informed his father that he
had placed second in his class
in scholastic standing. The
angry, father berated his son:
"Only second! Is that why I
worked so hard to send you to
college?" Filled with renewed
determination the son re-
turned to school and came
home at the end of his
sophomore year and an-
nounced that he was top man

Shabbah Re'eh:
Deuteronomy
7:12-11:25;
Isaiah 54:11-55:5

in the class. The father
looked at him, shrugged his
shoulders and said, "You, at
the top of the class? Well, it
can't be much of a college
then."
One can live that way if
one wishes, complaining over
one's lot, and always wishing
that life was better or kinder.
Or one can understand that
no one promised us a rose
garden, and that life gives us
blessings all the time, if only
we could see them. What
Moses, in the name of God,
said to his people centuries
ago is still relevant today:
Re'eh, look — each and every
one of you — look and you
can see depending on
whether you look with eyes of
faith or with eyes of despair.
Look and you can see reasons
for life and blessing or rea-
sons for death and maledic-
tion.
The Torah's command to
look is written in the singu-
lar and is addressed to each
and every person, because
each one of us can see in the
very same situation, what he
brings with him or her. There
is no life that does not have
in it more than enough rea-
sons for heartache and de-
spair, and there is no life
that does not have in it more
than enough reasons for joy
and celebration.
In the end it depends on us
which way we choose to look,
whether with eyes that focus
on bracha, on blessing, or
eyes that focus on kelalah, on
a curse. The Torah tells us
that the decision is ours —
and the ability is ours as
well.

Seeks AWACS

Buenos Aires (JTA)
Press accounts here report
that under a bilateral arms
agreement currently being
negotiated, Argentina seeks
to acquire U.S.-made AWACS
aircraft from Saudi Arabia.

