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Blessing Or Curse?
It's Your Choice
Parshat Re'eh: Deuteronomy 11:26-
16:17; Isaiah 54:11-55:5.
T
his week's parshat Re'eh
speaks of blessings and curs-
es. It enjoins us to "see" that
both blessings and curses have been
placed before us, and our choices are
what determine how blessed or cursed
we are and feel in our lives.
The word re'eh is the
command form of "see." It
requires (as a metaphor)
opening our eyes in a spe-
cial way, to see and to dis-
tinguish amongst choices.
All of our senses, especially
our spiritual sense, help us
to know which is the choice
that brings blessing and
which is the choice that
brings curse.
For instance, we are aware
that unhealthy foods as
well as healthy ones are placed before
us — just as are love and hate, caring
and apathy, connection and isolation.
Though all of them are among our
choices, we often lose sight of the lon-
ger-term ramifications of those choices.
Each of us can look back on our lives
and see the lasting effects of a momen-
tary choice that either brought untold
suffering or enduring blessing. Those
important choices lie before us as well.
I believe it is not enough to be
blessed, for a blessing is only a bless-
ing if we are conscious of it. Many of
us are oblivious to the blessings that
are ours. We focus instead on our defi-
ciencies or our challenges, ignoring
the bounty of our lives.
We all know many people who
seemingly have it all, but can't seem to
"see" it for themselves. They wallow in
sadness. And others who seem far less
blessed on the surface have a conscious-
ness of blessing that brings deep grati-
tude and ultimately joy and happiness.
Even in the bereavement of losing
a loved one, we can choose to be con-
scious of the blessing of having had that
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RUG CARE CENTERS AND SHOWROOMS
person in our lives for however long.
And after purchasing a home we can
choose to lament that it is not bigger,
more luxurious or in a better location.
Finding contentment is a rich blessing.
Re'eh continues in describing many
aspects of our tradition including our
three pilgrimage festivals.
Those festivals represent
the journey of our lives.
On pilgrimage, we might
know where is our destina-
tion, but we cannot know
what we might encounter
along the way in strange
lands and unforeseeable
circumstances. In our own
lives, we know well what is
our ultimate destination,
but we can't know how the
chapters of our lives might
unfold.
Just as "seeing" is the metaphor for
comprehending, knowing and grasp-
ing the nature of our choices and
their consequences — journeying or
pilgrimage is the method of how we
encounter them.
May the journey of our lives bring
us ever deeper insights into our
choices so that the richness of blessing
is not only within our grasp but also
vivid in our consciousness. 0
OAK PARK BIRMINGHAM NOVI UTICA ANN ARBOR
DESIGNS IN DECORATOR WOOD & LAMINATES, LTD.
i lL6P.1 1
oom
'rent
Lois Huron AlliedMember ASID 248.851.6989
Arnie Sluetelberg is the rabbi at
Congregation Shir Tikvah in Troy.
Conversations
• How might we make better
choices so that curses are mini-
mized and blessing is embraced?
• How might we cultivate a more
acute consciousness of the
blessings that are ours?
• How might we use insight to
guide our journey toward a path
of blessing and th. e recognition
of blessing?
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August 16 • 2012
51