Navigating Blessings and Curses: Profound Moral Choices in Parshas Re'eh (Rebroadcast)

0:01 One of the classic old American jesters once joked that when you come to the fork in the road, take it. And while that's funny, it's a good laugh, it's not exactly practical advice, for in real life, normally you can go right or you can go left. You get to choose. But you can't have both. There's the local and then there's the express. You can only go on one path, and here we have the ultimate choice, at the beginning of Parshas Re'eh, between good and evil. Re'eh anoychi nosayin lefneichem hayayim bracha uklala.

0:44 See, I present before you today a blessing and a curse. It's that simple. And now it's our choice to choose the life that we want to live A life of blessing and goodness or a life filled with suffering and of curses. God forbid. And while it may seem, as we go through Sefer Tavarim, like these are messages that we already know, we've internalized them, we know this and perhaps we're lulled to sleep during our Shnayim Mikra, but truthfully, when you come to this post, you should ask yourself I should see that which Moshe's saying from the word of Hashem. How can you see words?

1:25 And furthermore, lifneichem, they're placed down here in front of me. Can I touch them? What are these words? But here. You should be shaken back awake from your slumber to hear that it's not going to be so clear going forward, for when you walk into Eretz Yisrael and you march on Canaan, things will get very, very confusing and it will be hard to remember always what is truthfully blessing and what is truthfully curses. So here, right now, re'eh, you should see it, you should have it so clear, it should be so distinct that it's like being able to visualize it Bechush with your eyes.

2:08 Re'esit and lefneichem, the same way that we said by Eilam mishpotim asher, tosem, lefneichem, that Hashem, he told the laws to Moshe Rabbeinu, who then put it out like a set table in front of us, all of the Torah, not just once he taught the Mishnah, but over and over again and in 70 languages, for us to be able to perfectly consume and understand the laws here. Know it in all of its glory, the clarity that you can either choose good, and this is good, torah and mitzvos, olam Ha'aba, kibra, ve'eim Chesed, torah Tvila, that is good, and everything else, those that the sins, anything outside of Hashem's Torah, anything morally corrupt, that is bad.

2:56 And if you should say yes, yes, we know this, we got this. Well, maybe we have to ask ourselves if we did in fact answer our mother's call on the first ring or we still were involved in our television show, or did we in fact relearn the Gemara Chazard again to get it into our bones, or were we involved in some other mindless practice? So get it here clear that Re'eh see what is truthfully good, like a Shulchan Aracha setet table in front of you, and remember this and go through Sefer Tavarim getting the clarity that we need. As we're about to march on to Canaan and as we go through this Golas and this Midbar, we should be able to remember exactly and with total lucidity what is good, what is a blessing and what is bad, what is a blessing and what is bad and what is a curse.