Parshas Re'eh: Blessings and Life, A Winning Combination

Our Torah portion this week, Re'eh: Devarim (Deuteronomy) 11:26 - 16:17, begins with an eloquent lesson of spiritual cause and effect, the blessing and the curse.

The Blessing and the Curse

We receive blessings when we follow God's commandments as given in Torah. We receive curses when we do not follow God's commandments as given in Torah. Moses explains to the Jews how to apply this axiom very specifically in the Holy Land as the people go about their daily routine and interact with each other.

Re'eh means 'see' so the first order of the day is to identify idolatry and the profiteers who promote evil, and eradicate them from the neighborhood. Then, establish places of worship and civic organizations that honor God and holiness. Moses delineates rules for temple management, religious rituals and animal sacrifice, dietary guidelines and restrictions, tithing, charity, loans, debt forgiveness, and festival observance.

Moses points out many different aspects of idolatry, adamant that it must not infect the populace in any form.  Absolutely no trace of it is allowed, no people, no physical structures, no symbols, no child sacrifice.

The Blessing of Life

Chapter 12:31 of Parshas Re'eh specifically addresses child sacrifice as a pagan ritual that must be rejected. You must not do this to God, your God, for they performed for their deities every act that God considers an abomination and therefore hates; they would burn even their sons and daughters in fire to their deities.

Strong prohibitions against consuming animal blood also appear in this portion, based on the explanation that blood is the life of the animal and so the blood must be respected. Jews are forbidden to eat a fertile chicken egg with a blood spot, which shows evidence of life, and all of our meat must be koshered to remove the blood from the flesh.

Blood is the life applies to the baby in the womb, who at 21 days gestation has a beating heart and a functioning circulatory system. This fact discredits claims that the entity in the womb is not alive until it's born. Every abortion stops a beating heart, an organ that circulates blood around the body. So according to Torah, every abortion kills a living human being. This destruction of innocent human life in the womb must be repudiated and rejected.

A Holy Promise

Our Haftorah portion this week continues with Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 54:11 - 55:5, as he pivots from dire prognostications to sharing God's vision of a redeemed Israel in the messianic era. Chapter 55:6-9 speaks to the wickedness of secular humanism. It promises forgiveness and holiness after a restoration of God consciousness.

Seek the Lord when He is found, call Him when He is near. The wicked shall give up his way, and the man of iniquity his thoughts, and he shall return to the Lord, Who shall have mercy upon him, and to our God, for He will freely pardon. "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways," says the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts [higher] than your thoughts.

The Curse of Secularism

Today, many people lack spiritual sensibility. The barrage of lies that we see and hear all around us make us numb to the presence of God. We literally cannot 'see' the truth. We’ve let the worship of things other than the Almighty grow into a powerful element in society that confuses people morally, especially the most intelligent and even the good hearted.

Can we be sure we haven’t absorbed ideas and beliefs that seem to us acceptable, pragmatic departures from the clear moral principles in the 10 Commandments? For example, Thou Shalt Not Murder clearly protects the life of innocent human beings. Yet, killing innocent babies in the womb has become acceptable as compassionate and proper healthcare, an idea emanating from human minds intent upon mass murder and profit making.

Parshas Re'eh Lessons

Moses predicts the dangers of secular humanism in Israel. Isaiah lives through ti, as we are again experiencing it around the world. The cycles of good and evil between then and now give us the ability to see the blessings if we look for them.

God is real. God alone has the power to create human life. Human life is made in God's image. Worship God and be blessed. Respect life and be blessed. 

We can also see the curses resulting from the actions upon society by minds divorced from God's vision for humanity. 

Humans are gods. Humans have the power over life and death. Life is dispensable. Have faith in human ideas and be cursed. Destroy life and be cursed.

Isaiah's prophecy of a redeemed Israel within a broader context of a redeemed world is a real and enduring promise for humanity. Each new human life protected and born into this world keeps that promise alive. Each one is a blessing.

May there be abundant peace from Heaven, and good life upon us and upon all Israel. Amen.

Cecily Routman

Cecily Routman is the founder and president of the Jewish Pro-Life Foundation. She opposes abortion homicide in general and among Jews in particular and laments secular policy making in Israel that results in loss of Jewish life and delays the messianic redemption. Cecily envisions a Torah based holy Land of Israel and a world that respects the life of every human being from conception.

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