Re'e

With God's help, you and I are beginning to study the weekly portion Re'e, and we will read from verse 26 of chapter 11 of the book of Devarim.

The first weekly portion of our book was called the same as the whole book – Devarim (Words), from the verb ledaber (to speak), that is, it is speaking. Then we read the portions Vaetchanan (Shma, Yisrael!) and Ekev (If you will listen…), in which very much was said about hearing, from the verb lishmoa (to hear, to listen). Very rarely does the Torah speak about seeing, and now, in our verse, we meet the word r'e – look, from the verb lir'ot (to see).

In Judaism, in the tradition, it is customary to hold that hearing stands higher than seeing. Why is that? A picture cannot be learned by heart. It seems that when we look, we see everything in all its details, that we, as it were, take possession of what we are looking at, and we forget that we see only partially. It seems so to such a degree that ancient people mistakenly believed that a little ray comes out of the eye, touches objects and is reflected. Of course, this is a mistaken belief, but all of us know the feeling that someone is looking at us. There is such a superstitious notion – the evil eye. It seems that someone can cast the evil eye, can, by seeing, spoil. And despite the fact that this is a superstition, many people really do feel uncomfortable when someone is looking at them, this is a fact of psychology. And it seems that sight has some kind of aggressive character. There is a false impression that, having seen, you have, as it were, seen everything at once. In reality, you see separate images, but they do not come together for you into a single picture, although in order to see, it is enough just to open your eyes for an instant, to blink (hence also the word “instant”).

If I say, “Show me Beethoven's Fifth Symphony,” they may show me the score, but I will understand nothing of it. To understand the symphony, I will have to arm myself with patience and listen. And to hear something, one needs humility, patience, one needs to spend time: what is heard does not reveal itself at once. When I hear something (and I hear something all the time, each of us hears something all the time), the sounds come together into a single whole. We do not see numerous images in sounds, but precisely through hearing it is much easier, much better possible to understand the unity of the world. Therefore every believing Jew four times a day covers his eyes with his hands and prays the prayer Shma Yisrael: “Hear, Israel, the LORD, our God, – God is one.” To understand the unity of God, the whole symphony of creation, as a single whole, is possible at the level of hearing. Perception by ear is a more humble perception, and at the same time, strange as it may seem, it is a deeper perception, although they do say: it is better to see once than to hear a hundred times.

I know that one could put it this way: psychologists divide people by their ways of perceiving information. Say, there are those who perceive more easily by ear (auditory types), and those who perceive more easily by seeing (visual types). But we are now speaking about the perception of spiritual information, about what happens not simply with information, but with its perception in the spiritual world, therefore the approach is somewhat different. With fleshly eyes we will always see forms, we will always see division, but if we close our eyes, begin to listen, then we will hear this unity of God, and accept this unity of God, and open our eyes, and then (as it is said: “And the eyes will be opened”) we will be able to see something on a completely different level.

Very often we meet in the Torah and in the Scriptures the expression and he lifted his eyes, and saw, when ordinary sight passes to the level of prophetic sight. And in the end we, as it turns out, see three steps in the organoleptics of the spiritual world. On the first step – bodily, physical sight, sight with unpurified eyes, then – the step of hearing, of the act of hearing, and further – seeing, that seeing which is akin to the prophetic, with lifted eyes. It is precisely to this seeing that Moshe appeals here: “Open your eyes, lift your eyes and look, today I give you a blessing and a curse.”

And here again a difficulty arises, this time a difficulty of a grammatical nature. Let us read once more: “Look (singular), today I give you (plural) a blessing and a curse.iIn English “look” and “you” have the same form in the singular and the plural, but Russian and Hebrew distinguish them, and this paragraph is about that difference. The markers “(singular)” and “(plural)” are added to make it visible; they are not in the original.” One could have written: look (plural), today I give you (plural), or written: look (singular), today I give you (singular). Why, after all, look (r'e), today I give you (lifnechem)? One can say this: usually look is an address to each person separately, before you, you – this can be an address to the whole people. But the commentators say: “R'e (look) is an address to all Israel, to the people as one body, one whole, which the people becomes before entering the land, and lifnechem is already an address to private persons.” That is, the general here is r'e (look), and the particular here is lifnechem (you). These are new rules that will be in force in the land of Israel: first the general, the whole people as a whole, and then the particular, the address to each one of the people. Does this not seem wonderful?

So, Moshe says: “Today I place before you (give before you) a blessing and a curse.” Blessing is connectedness (in the literal sense) to the source of life, like plugging an electrical appliance into a socket. We have spoken many times about this word curse (klala), that it is lightness, weightlessness, loss of all importance, loss of any inner essence. This is a choice that is given to a person. And, only having heard everything that has already been heard, one can understand this only in the land of Israel. Why can this be understood only in the land of Israel? Because before this there was the desert, before this there were special conditions, there was the man that fell from heaven, there were clothes that did not wear out, and everything that was heard was not revealed in full measure. Moshe says: “In the land of Israel this will be revealed in full measure.”

What is the blessing and the curse, or when will there be blessing and curse? In verse 27 we read:

And what about the curse? In verse 28 we read:

Again, one could have written it this way: you will have a blessing if you obey the voice of the LORD, your God. And in verse 28 we read: “The curse – if you will not listen…” The curse will be if, and the blessing in that… The Most High blesses the people by giving the people a predisposition to keeping these commandments, support in order to keep these commandments. The blessing will be in that you will listen to the voice of the LORD, your God, will listen by your nature, by that grace (grace – giving good), the putting of good into the people, which will make it predisposed to hearing the voice, and in this is the blessing. And the curse – if you will not obey, if you make some effort, change your nature and will not obey the voice of your God. By your nature, by what I am making you now, by what the Torah does with you, you are predisposed to keep the commandments, to listen to the voice. Therefore one can put it this way, that righteousness is not born from people keeping the commandments, blessing does not come for people keeping the commandments. No. Righteousness is a blessing. Righteousness, the ability to believe the Most High, faith in the Most High and the desire to obey His voice – the Most High places these here into the people. And as a result of this righteousness, as a result of this grace given to the people – the people will obey the voice of the LORD God and listen to the commandments which Moshe commands. First righteousness, grace, as a consequence the keeping of the commandments.

One of the teachers who lived in the 1st century, Rabbi Chananya ben Akashya, said: “The LORD wanted to make Israel more righteous, and therefore gave it more Torah and more commandments, as it is written in Yeshayahu in chapter 42, in verse 21: The LORD desired for the sake of His righteousness to increase the Torah and to glorify it”. That is, the LORD gave more commandments in order to endow a person with greater grace, greater righteousness for keeping it, and from this greater righteousness – the ability to keep more commandments, to listen more attentively to the voice of God. But in order to guard this righteousness, one must understand that it is not your righteousness, one must constantly remain with opened spiritual sight, because one can swap cause and effect and seek a righteousness that will be the effect of keeping the commandments, and this is a very dangerous move.

A serious question arises. Can it be that the choice, it is like this: to obey the commandments of the LORD or to go after other gods? If a person suddenly, having made a mistake or having given in to appetite or passion, bought himself pasta with shrimp, did he immediately become an idol worshipper? Of course, there is sin in a person eating what the Most High forbade to eat, but from this there is a long way to idol worship. And here the Torah teaches us that if you set out on this path, then you will walk it to its end. The evil inclination does not come to a person and does not say to him right away: “Hey! Let's go and bow down to the statue of Dagon!” It comes to a person with some small temptations. Everyone has these temptations at his own level, every person stands at his own level, he has a step up and a step down. For someone, a step up is getting up at five in the morning for prayer instead of seven in the morning. For someone, a step up is giving up drugs or giving up a life of robbery. Each at his own level, but there is a way up, there is a way down. And here the Torah teaches us: if you do not obey the voice of the Most High, then as a consequence you will certainly come to worshipping other gods.

So, you are offered a blessing and a curse. The blessing has already been placed in you, it has already been given to you, it is in that you will obey the voice. But this blessing, this grace does not deprive you of freedom of choice, therefore, perhaps, you will turn away from keeping the commandments, stop listening to the voice of the LORD, and then the curse will come to you.

There is a Hasidic tale about a man to whom the unclean one came. Well, of course, he came to him not in the form of a horned devil, but came to him in the form of some person, who said to him: “Rent me your house.” And the man, the owner of the house, said to him: “Unclean one, I will not give you my house.” – “I will pay you a lot,” he said. But the other said: “No, this is my house.” – “Give me just a room.” – “And a room I will not give you either.” Then he said: “Well, just let me drive a little nail into that wall, the wall of your house, and rent me this little nail, and I will pay you as for your whole hut.” To this the man agreed. And then the tenant came and drove in a little nail, then came and hung some stinking sack on this little nail, and from this sack there was such a stench that it drove out the whole house. The tale is rather primitive, but it describes processes that can happen with a person who gets lost, stops hearing the Voice, it shows that in this way one can come to worshipping other gods.

In Hebrew there are two words which, when they occur, point to the emotional coloring of events. Every time it is written vayehí, this means something sad. Every time it is written vehayá, this means some joyful event.

Where are these mountains?

About Elon-More we know (from the book of Bereshit) that it is a place near the city of Sh'chem. Naturally, the question remains: why not write “near the city of Sh'chem”? We have spoken about the fact that there are two promises regarding the borders of the Holy Land. There is what the Most High said to Avraham: “All the land of Canaan I will give you,” and there is: “…from the sea to the river Prat,” two kinds of borders of the land. When the people lives on its full territory – this is a people that has a mission with regard to the gentiles. When the people lives only in the land of Canaan – this is a people that does not yet reveal its mission with regard to the gentiles now.

If we look at the territory of Canaan, then Sh'chem is its very center. And indeed, near the city of Sh'chem there are Mount Eval and Mount Gerizim, and the mention of Elon-More points to Sh'chem. But near Jericho, too, there are places that are called Eval and Gerizim, and Jericho is near the place called Gilgal. And if we speak about Israel from the sea to the river Prat, then no longer Sh'chem, but Jericho will be the geometric center of this land; true, there are no mountains there. It turns out that Moshe here, as if deliberately, does not give a direct indication. One can understand this as an indication of Sh'chem, the center of the land of Canaan, and one can understand this as an indication of Jericho and Gilgal, the center of the great land of Israel.

The Tannaim (sages of the 1st–2nd centuries) dispute in the Talmud regarding where these two mountains were. And the majority of opinions say that they are near Jericho, only one sage, the one who usually was the very one who disputed with the Samaritans, says: “In this I agree with the Samaritans, these are the mountains that are near the city of Sh'chem, Gerizim and Eval.” And from the historical point of view, of course, he is right. It is precisely there that Mounts Gerizim and Eval are located, and this can be seen from the indication that there is about Elon-More. Presumably, the altar that Yehoshua bin Nun built there was found by Israeli archaeologists. Unfortunately, the situation around it is deplorable because of what is happening with the so-called “Palestinian autonomy.” The Samaritans, a people that lives in Sh'chem, in Samaria, in Shomron (it is after the name of this area that they are called Samaritans), have their own text of the Torah, they corrected it a little bit. And in it, in verse 30, after the words étzel eloné moré (at Elon-More) it is written: esh sh'chém – this is Sh'chem.

So, the area of Sh'chem is the geometric center of the land of Canaan; there is Mount Eval, there is Mount Gerizim. How will this look? The people, as we remember, will stand on two mountains, and below, in the valley between the two mountains, the Levites will stand. As the commentators say, when they say the curse, they will turn to Mount Eval, when they say the blessing, they will turn to Mount Gerizim. And the tribes standing on the mountains will answer: “Amen!”

Why the blessing toward Mount Gerizim (or onto Mount Gerizim), and the curse – onto Mount Eval, and not the other way round? A very interesting commentary is given by Rav Hirsch. He says: “Two mountains stand side by side, two mountains which receive rain equally, and light, and everything else, two mountains which are literally located next to each other. Mount Gerizim is green, olives grow there. Next to it is Mount Eval, it is desolate, and there is much less vegetation there. Like two people who in the physical world receive equally, but one is blessed and the other is cursed.” Such is the image that Rav Hirsch reveals in these mountains.

If we look at this event, one can say that it is the giving of the Torah in reverse. When the Most High gave the Torah to the people of Israel, the voice of the Most High sounded from the mountain, from above, the people stood below. Here the voice of man sounds from below, the people stands above. And one can say: if there it was the giving of the Torah from Heaven, then here – the giving of the Torah from the earth, from the land of Israel, the giving of the Torah, but now with a human voice.

We have already spoken about the laws (chukkim) and about the statutes, judgments (mishpatim) in the book of Vayikra. And here one can already look in a new way at the word keep in the sense of guard, strive. This has already been put into you, only keep it, you already have it. You cannot keep what you do not have. Keep, because this is given to you, because this is put into you. Keep this state, and then you will be able to observe the commandments and the laws.

We saw that there are three levels of spiritual organoleptics: simple fleshly seeing, hearing, and seeing with lifted eyes – prophetic seeing, which says that the Most High offers every person a blessing and a curse (in another place we will also read life and death). We saw that the blessing of the Most High is in this, that it is already put into a person, but he can choose the curse. We saw how this new seeing will be attested in the land of Israel by a peculiar giving of the Torah from the earth.

With God's help, you and I continue to study the weekly portion Re'e, and we will read from verse 1 of chapter 12 of the book of Devarim.

Here one could expect a full list of the commandments of the Torah, since in the new land, in the land which the LORD has given us, we must observe all the commandments, everything that pertains to us. But Moshe gives quite concrete instructions about how, in the spiritual sense, to settle into the new place, how to make this land one's own.

A very interesting commandment. How can one destroy places? It is clear that one can destroy buildings, statues, temples, pits – anything at all. But how can one destroy places? There are some places where pagan temples are built, where idols are located, or where pagan service simply takes place, which can look very beautiful, can enchant the spirit. Indeed, there are very many beautiful, breathtaking places in nature, glory to God, the great Creator created nature so. And very often the pagans saw the Most High behind this beauty. And, of course, this is right. Indeed, in all this beauty the Most High is revealed, as He is revealed in a flower, as He is revealed in high mountains and waterfalls. But in exactly the same way He is revealed also in the grasshopper, and in the ant, and in the structure of a monkey's intestines. So it turns out that the beauty of nature, these breathtaking views, can by mistake be perceived as holiness, and one can begin to worship precisely there. This happened very often. Very often some ancient beautiful tree, or a high rock which by its appearance resembles something, or some place from which a breathtaking, beautiful view opens up, became a place of worship. In this way a person appointed some place as holy for himself, dedicated it to his gods. And here the LORD says: “Do not choose a place for yourself on the basis of some aesthetic principles.”

We are, let me remind you, in the weekly portion Re'e (look). To look and see God behind beauty, behind the complex structure of something that perhaps does not seem worthy and beautiful to us – this is right, this is the revelation of the Most High in beauty. But we cannot make this place holy. One can see beautiful idols, beautiful buildings, beautiful works of art that are dedicated to pagan gods, this is also connected with sight. And this can create in us the illusion that this beauty here, it is what is holy. Indeed, the pagans often tried to make genuine works of art for their gods. A person who believed in them tried not to offer the gods shoddy work. And even if we do not believe in them, we can be taken in by this beauty, our sight can deceive us. Therefore it is precisely the weekly portion Re'e that warns us about this, beginning with nature, which we can make an object of worship, saying: “Well, this is a beautiful place, it cannot fail to be holy!” One can be deceived like this. One can say: “They worshiped the wrong god here, but the place itself, it is holy, it is (as it is customary to say today) a place of power, a place of holiness.” And this is an optical deception of sight, beginning with nature, as we said, and ending with the works of art of ancient masters, of everything that is dedicated to idols, whether it seems aesthetic to us or does not seem so. Therefore, following the instruction to erase these places, that is, to deprive them of that seeming holiness which may appear to us because the pagans worshiped their gods there, one must perform, besides that, also a practical action, which is again repeated.

That is, even the name of the god who was worshiped at this place must be erased. Very often a city or a place of worship was named after a god. For example, in Russia the city of Kostroma still exists (named after a mythological character, the embodiment of spring and fertility). All the notions of holiness that were in this land we do not inherit, we inherit the land. And something may seem beautiful to us – undoubtedly, in the land of Israel there are most beautiful places with a wonderful view, there are places with marvelous nature, where since ancient times some gods were worshiped. But we must not deceive ourselves, we must understand that all this is an illusion, all this only seems so to us.

In verse 4 we read a rather strange command:

What does this mean? To whom could it seem that we can destroy some altars dedicated to our God? There is such an understanding, the law says that anyone who removes a stone from an altar dedicated to God transgresses this commandment. But there is also another understanding of this commandment. We must not say: “What a wonderful place, how the holiness of the Creator is revealed here! Let us set up an altar here to the LORD, our God. See what a beautiful place He has created! Let us ourselves choose a place for worshiping God, by some aesthetic criteria of ours – let them be different, and let snow-covered peaks seem aesthetic to one person, and to another – the cliffs of the Dead Sea.” But here Moshe says: “Do not apply such criteria for choosing the place of worship of the LORD, your God.”

We cannot say, as is customary to this day among many peoples: “Here we will build a temple to the LORD, our God, we will choose a more beautiful place, or we will choose some place to which there is easy access, at the central crossroads we will build a place of worship, on the main square of the city we will build a place of worship.” No. The Most High says: “There where I will choose,” and Moshe says: “There where God will choose, there will be the place of the Temple.” The Most High makes a place holy from Heaven. Yes, in nature, on the earth there will be a holy place, but its sanctification will be from the Heavens, and not from the earth. This is not a contest for the most beautiful place, for the highest place. And the criterion by which it will be sanctified will be a heavenly criterion, the Most High will choose this place.

In verse 8 we read something even more astonishing:

That is, when you come into the land of Israel, do not do as we are doing today. One can understand that Moshe is saying here that in his times, in those times of which he is speaking, everyone acted as was right in his eyes. But this contradicts the book of Vayikra, in which it is written that one must bring sacrifices only to the Tent of Meeting and one may not bring sacrifices outside it. How then does Moshe say such a thing here? And it seems that Moshe is saying that here, now, it is right to do this, and there, in the land of Israel, it will be wrong. How can this be understood?

Many commentators have proposed different ways of understanding. I am inclined to think, inclined to agree with those who say that when the tribes received their allotments beyond the Jordan, then, in order to establish themselves, they built altars to God there. These altars secured their possession of this land. As long as the people did not possess the land completely, it was possible to set up altars outside the sanctuary. A confirmation of this can also be the era of the judges: in the whole book of Shoftim we read that, despite the prohibition, sacrifices are offered on the high places all the time. For a very, very long time, until the reign of Chizkiyahu and Yoshiyahu, we read that no one could root out these high places. Moreover, we read that the prophet Eliyahu, when he contends with the prophets of Ba'al, sets up an altar on Mount Carmel, practically on a high place. And the Most High answers his prayer. After the Angel comes to Manoach and his wife to announce the birth of Shimshon, Manoach also makes a sacrifice on an altar outside the sanctuary.

How can this be understood? Let us read verse 5 again, in which it is written that the LORD will choose a place out of all your tribes, to make His name dwell there. Most likely, there existed such an interpretation that as long as all the tribes are not united into a single state, one may bring sacrifices on the high places. If we had asked a representative of the tribe of Naftali or of Gad: “What, have you not read the book of Devarim, how can you do this? Look, Devarim 12:8 says not to act so,” then most likely they would have answered us that this is out of all the tribes of Israel. Is such an interpretation of the book of Devarim really correct, and was it permitted to act so? Most likely, such an interpretation of the book of Devarim is incorrect. But when a person does something incorrect, he does not always say: “Now I am going to do badly, now I am going to do something bad, I am going to transgress.” In the end his goal is to bring a sacrifice to the Most High. It is just hard for him to go to Jerusalem, sometimes it is inconvenient to go to Jerusalem, and then such an explanation is found, is born. We know, we read this constantly both in the book of Shoftim and in the books of Melachim, that about this or that king it is said that he did what was righteous in the eyes of God, but could not destroy the high places. This is a very complicated question, a painful one for the people. The prophet Eliyahu faced a choice: to destroy the cult of Ba'al and thereby, perhaps, give an argument in defense of those who bring sacrifices on the high places, or to stop fighting the cult of Ba'al. Eliyahu chose to build an altar on a high place and to bring a sacrifice there, in order to destroy the prophets of Ba'al, in order to destroy the cult of Ba'al. This is a complicated question of choice.

Rebuke does not always lead to correction. We know that King Chizkiyahu finally destroyed these altars. Archaeologists find in various places altars that are covered over on top with stones so that it was no longer possible to bring sacrifices on them. Most likely, this is the work of Chizkiyahu's hands. And this tells us that the altars themselves were considered holy, it was impossible simply to take and destroy them. He covered them over, covered them on top, but did not destroy them, because in the eyes of the people they were perceived as something sacred. Later we read (2 Divrei haYamim 32:10–12) how Sancheriv, king of Ashur, persuades the inhabitants of Jerusalem to surrender: “Thus says Sancheriv: ‘On what do you trust, sitting in the fortress in Yerushalayim? For Chizkiyahu is inciting you, so as to deliver you to death by hunger and thirst, saying: The LORD, our God, will save us from the hand of the king of Ashur. For he, Chizkiyahu, abolished the raised places and His altars and declared to Judea and Yerushalayim, saying: Before one altar bow down and on it perform the burning of incense.’” Sancheriv most likely had good intelligence, and he understood that there was indignation among the people at what Chizkiyahu had done. The people were frightened by the fact that Chizkiyahu had destroyed, abolished the raised places and altars to the LORD. For the people, fulfilling this commandment was very hard. And Sancheriv uses this as an argument that after such an action of the king the LORD will not protect the people. But Sancheriv, despite his well-established intelligence, had not read chapter 12 of the book of Devarim.

We see here an example of a commandment that was not kept by the people of Israel over the course of many centuries. And Moshe explains further why for now, possibly these five months from the moment of the conquest of the lands beyond the Jordan until the entry into the land, why for now this is permitted.

That is, Moshe says: “Now, while you have not yet entered the land, temporarily this is permitted, but later this will be forbidden.” And we see that later, over the course of many centuries, six to eight centuries, this command was not kept by the people of Israel. We see that it was difficult to fight this non-observance.

You will come and rejoice. And when you rejoice together with your family, do not forget at the same time your male servant and your female servant, and do not forget at the same time also the Levite who is in your gates. You must take care not only of your family, but also of the Levite. If you want to rejoice, make the Levite rejoice too, let the Levite also rejoice together with you.

What do verses 13 and 14 serve us as an addition for? We can say: “Good, there are sacrifices, part of which the one who brought them has the right to eat, for example, the peace offering (shelamím). When we bring a peace offering, we have the right to eat from it. And then it has to be brought in Jerusalem, in order to eat it together with the kohen, together with the family, together with the male servant, together with the female servant. But what about those sacrifices from which we eat nothing? For example, the burnt offering. The burnt offering – what difference does it make where I ‘whole-burn’ it?” And here, in these verses, the Torah adds: “And as regards the burnt offering – do not take it into your head either to bring it wherever you please, but only in the place which the LORD will choose.”

Another situation, which existed in the times when the people lived in the desert: any meat that was slaughtered was slaughtered as a sacrifice. One could not simply slaughter a ram or a young goat and eat it. A person who wanted to eat meat had to bring it as a sacrifice, as shelamím, and only then eat.

Now, however, in the land of Israel, when the people settle across it and, possibly, some people will live far from Jerusalem, what is to be done now? And Moshe gives instruction on this matter too.

The deer and the doe are a kind of animal that is not offered as a sacrifice, they are not raised up onto the altar: evidently, when they caught a deer or a doe in the desert, they slaughtered them and ate them. And they could be eaten both by the pure and by the impure, whereas the meat offered as a shelamím sacrifice, from which a person wanted to eat, of course could be eaten only in purity.

Now Moshe says that in exactly the same way it will be possible to eat any meat. It will not be necessary to bring a sacrifice in order to eat meat, one can simply slaughter a ram and eat it. For this it is not necessary to purify oneself, the pure and the impure may eat it. There is complete freedom in eating meat, in the new place, in the new land, of course.

One must not eat meat with blood, one must not eat blood in any form. And before eating the meat of an animal, its blood must pour out of it.

Again a prohibition on what has some relation to the holy: the tithe, or an offering made by vow, or a voluntarily brought donation. One could say: “If I made a vow to bring some offering, or if I myself voluntarily decided to bring some offering, then I will also choose the place. And what is there to talk about? It is when I bring a sin offering out of obligation that I will carry it to Jerusalem. But when I have made a vow or when I have simply decided to bring an offering voluntarily, I will bring it wherever I myself want.” Or: “All this concerns only meat, but my tithes, the grapes, and the bread, and the oil I will eat here.” But Moshe says: “This too is not allowed, everything will be only in Jerusalem.”

What is meant here, of course, is the second ma'aser (tithe), the so-called ma'aser sheni, which by the commandment of the Torah is set aside in order to celebrate with the whole family in Jerusalem. It is a kind of gift to oneself.

The LORD says, constantly says: “I will bless the work of your hands. The work of your hands can be: if you are a grain farmer – wheat, if you are a vinegrower – grapes, if you grow olives – then olives and oil. I will bless the work of your hands, and you will bring from these fruits a tithe and teruma (heave offering), and you will rejoice together with your whole family in every work of your hands.”

Of course, the servant and the maidservant we remember, but the Levite can quite easily be forgotten. Celebrate yourself, celebrate as a family, receive the blessing of your hands from the Most High, but do not forget the Levite, who serves you and who is the allotment of the LORD, your God.

With God's help, you and I are continuing the study of the weekly portion Re'e, and we will read from verse 20 of chapter 12 of the book of Devarim. And at first glance, what we are going to read practically repeats what we read at the beginning of our weekly portion.

That is, when your country grows, and there are more and more territories, and all the blessings of the Most High are being fulfilled, then there need not be some special reason (not because it is a festival or something has happened), but simply your soul will desire meat. And it seems that this is similar to what we already read in verse 15. So similar that Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi), one of the most respected commentators of the Torah, says (in the commentary on verse 15) that here, in verse 20, the Torah permits eating meat without bringing it as an offering, while in verse 15 the Torah speaks of a special situation, when a person has dedicated a lamb or a kid to the Most High, that is, said to himself, decided for himself: “This lamb, this kid I will bring as an offering when, with God's help, I go to Jerusalem.” But it so happened that this lamb or this kid broke its little leg or received some other injury, and it can no longer be brought as an offering. What is to be done with it then? In Rashi's opinion, the Torah in verse 15 permits redeeming it and eating its meat, setting aside some money with which another lamb or kid will later be bought in its place, and the meat of this lamb or this kid may be eaten. In Rashi's opinion, the Torah speaks twice in order to give two different permissions: in verse 20 it simply permits eating meat, and in verse 15 it permits it in certain special cases, but this is most likely no longer the simple meaning of the Torah. So why does the Torah repeat one and the same thing to us? Because Moshe is speaking on two different topics.

In the first case he speaks about the obligations of sacrifice only in the place chosen by the Most High. It is there that this topic sounds, and in the course of the conversation he speaks about the permission to eat meat. Here Moshe speaks separately about the fact that a person is allowed to eat meat as much as his soul pleases, and in the course of the conversation he will speak about the fact that holy things must nevertheless be brought to the Temple or to the Tent of Meeting, that is, the Torah speaks on two different topics. Why is it necessary to speak separately about the permission to eat meat? When the return to the land of Israel takes place, and, as we often say, the entering into rest, and correction, and the return to some new spiritual level, someone may think that this is a return to the situation before the Flood and that meat must not be eaten. Someone may say: “In general, there is no business eating meat: if you cannot bring an offering, then do not eat meat either.” Someone may think that this matter is, in principle, cruel, inhumane, that is, unnatural for human beings – to eat meat. As you know, today this has become fashionable, this kind of reasoning.

What does the Torah say about food? From the very first moment, when the Most High planted the Garden (we read this at the very beginning of the book of Bereshit), He gives man a commandment. Usually people say that the Most High commanded him: “Do not eat from this tree.” This is not quite so. The Most High commanded: “From every tree eat, only from this tree do not eat.” From every tree eat – this too is part of the commandment. Taste everything that I have made in this world, rejoice in all My works: as a grandmother rejoices when her grandson comes and eats everything she has cooked, so the Most High rejoices, treating man to food (of course, if this does not turn into an enslaving addiction). But there is also a spiritual dimension in this: what we eat, be it a banana, blackcurrants or potatoes, becomes part of us. There is nothing bad in being a blackcurrant or a potato, but the potato that a person has eaten becomes part of the person's flesh, part of human energy, of that Divine which is revealed in the person through it (we already spoke with you in the commentary on verse 3 of chapter 8 about the fact that man does not live by bread as such). If a person, with the help of this currant, this potato, or, as regards our conversation, with the help of the flesh of this ram, is able to serve the Most High, having made it his own flesh, then it turns out that the flesh of the ram rises to a completely new level – just as in the Garden the fruits that man ate became man and rose to a completely different level. This is the classic Jewish approach to food.

We eat in order to serve the Creator, and we serve the Creator by what we eat, by raising our food to another level, including through this as well. Therefore the Torah here says separately: “There is nothing bad in wanting to eat meat.” Moreover, let us imagine that once upon a time a person, a tiny, tiny little person (not yet quite a little person, still only an embryo), lived in his mother's womb, gradually grew and grew, and grew to such a size that he filled almost his whole world with himself. He ate so much that he became the size of his world, of the uterus of the woman in which he is. And now he is born into a new world for new impressions, for new service and, among other things, for new food. Both his task and ours is to raise the whole world to the level of holiness, to make everything holy.

In the prophet Z'charya it is said that the Temple, the place of holiness on earth, will spread out across the earth. Part of this service is the food that we eat for the service of the Most High. It does not always work out that way, one has to be an absolute righteous man for it to come out only for service, but the Torah speaks about this here. What happens when we cannot eat precisely for service, when it does not work out, when I know that of everything I eat, only ten or five percent will go to the service of the Most High? There is also the blessing. Therefore it is said (8:10): “And you will eat, and you will be satisfied, and you will bless…”. And you will eat, and you will be satisfied – this is your right, your decision, and you will bless – this is a commandment. After eating we bless the Most High, and this too is a form of service.

With all that we have said about food and its importance, one should not treat it as a sacrifice. We read about this in verse 22:

The word ha'ayal can also be translated as chamois (well, I am not strong in zoology). A very widespread mistake among people is this understanding, that it is forbidden to be unclean. I am often asked about this: “What should a person do who has become unclean? For example, he helped in the burial of a dead person, touched something unclean.” A woman after giving birth, although she has served the Most High, has taken part in fulfilling a commandment, becomes unclean, or, as we said, a person who took part in the burial of a dead person becomes unclean. And the answer: it is not a sin to be ritually unclean. There is a difference between ritual uncleanness and sin. There is no sin at all in being unclean, and sometimes the fulfilling of a commandment requires that a person become unclean. And here we read that the clean and the unclean may eat together, there where they live, they may together eat the meat of one lamb. When does sin arise? When a person in this state of ritual uncleanness goes to the Temple, that is when there is a problem. And if he, while he has not yet been purified, wants to share a meal with a clean person, or, the other way around, a clean person wants to share a meal with someone, he does not have to wait for his purification. They simply eat together. I will repeat that it is not a sin to be ritually unclean. This must be remembered well.

It would seem that if we look at blood, blood is completely material. It has weight, consistency, color, so that from every side blood is a material substance. How then does the Torah say that blood is the life force or that it is the soul? The prohibition itself is understandable, but the reason for the prohibition is hard to understand, and on this point there are many commentaries.

Maimonides (Rambam), a realist commentator, who in all cases tries to make do with a minimal amount of mysticism, says here that blood was used by the pagans. They believed that it is the life force, they believed that when they drink blood, they take strength from the demons, and therefore the Torah forbids the use of blood.

Nachmanides (Moshe ben Nachman, Ramban) – precisely a man who strives more to draw on mysticism for explanations – says that the heart, as we know, is the center of a person's thinking, from the point of view of the Torah. The heart can be wise, a person thought in his heart, planned in his heart, said to his heart or said in his heart. The heart is the center of a person's thinking, the center of the qualities of his soul, and, as we see from human anatomy, the heart controls the movement of the blood. The heart is a pump that pumps blood through the body, gives (in this line of understanding) the forces of life and of the soul to the whole body. That is, the heart is the seat of the soul, and therefore the meat of the heart itself may be eaten, but the blood, which is the carrier of the soul, in this connection may not be eaten. There are many more different explanations, and, as always happens when we see many different explanations, this tells us that there is no unambiguous answer. There is no possibility of understanding unambiguously what the phrase means: “The blood is the soul.” And, of course, I know that people will appear who will come and say, “But we know for certain,” and will set out the teaching of one denomination or another. But we read the Torah, we try to understand it, and the teachings of the denominations are known to us. So, only do not eat blood, because in the blood there is the life force or the soul (nefesh). Try, try not to eat blood.

As we said, the Torah speaks about everyday, daily food and only in passing says that the holy things must be brought to the holy place, to the place which the LORD will choose.

Why is that so? Because the soul is in the blood, and it makes atonement for the soul. All the subtleties of this we examined when we read the book of Vayikra.

All these words – this is everything that we have read from the very beginning of the chapter: about getting rid of the places that were considered holy among the pagans, about bringing sacrifices to the place which the Most High will choose, about the eating of meat and about refraining from blood. All these things must be listened to attentively, so that it may be well, because, by fulfilling this, we will do what is upright in the eyes of the Most High.

From verse 29 a somewhat new topic begins, also a very important one.

Sometimes, when we come to some country, we can look at how they do farming there, how they prepare for winter there, how they do something else there. I can look at the pagans and say: “As they did, so will I do.”

The story is well known (2 Melachim 17:24–28) about people from Babylon and other conquered cities whom the king of Assyria resettled in the country of Israel, in Samaria, and there lions began to bite them. The lions bit them and bit them, until a priest was sent who taught them the rules of this country. That is, the inhabitants of Samaria got the thought: “When something does not work out for us in this country, we can study the rules of this country.” In our case they studied the rules of the God of Israel, but the thought itself is a thought characteristic of pagans: “Every country has its own laws, and I will live by these laws.” One can fall into the trap and accept the laws of those nations that lived here before us. And Moshe warns against such imitation.

Here it is speaking about the terrible tradition of offering children as a sacrifice to the god Molech, when children were literally burned, as some say, or, according to another opinion, were passed through fire. Why does Moshe here warn especially about precisely this custom, and why does the Torah repeatedly speak precisely about Molech, precisely against this belief? Because the notion of Molech is the notion of an evil god, to whom something must necessarily be sacrificed, something must necessarily be given, who comes to destroy, and from whom one must buy oneself off. Never think that the God of Israel is looking for how to kill you, how to destroy you, how to catch you out, and that, so that He does not find fault with you, one must give up one of the sons, must give up one of one's own, must offer someone as a sacrifice. This is what it is speaking about here, in this never imitate the pagans.

With this chapter 12 ends and chapter 13 begins, but the division of the Masoretic text does not end here. And the first verse of chapter 13 belongs to what we are reading about.

Again we are speaking here about some permissions and allowances. Someone may say: “The LORD commanded to destroy all the idols, but He said nothing about such a beautiful building, about such a beautiful fresco or about such a golden, expensive, some other idolatrous image.” Someone may say: “The LORD permitted meat, but He permitted it twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays, and did not permit it on any other days.” One must not add to what has been said, and one should not say: “You are obliged to eat meat. Since it is a good thing to eat meat, you are obliged to eat meat.”

The Most High sets a certain norm. Do not try to be kinder than the Most High or more evil than the Most High. Do not call immoral what the Most High called moral, do not call moral what the Most High called immoral, hold to His criteria. Just as you follow the place which He has chosen, follow also the norms of ethics which He has chosen, do not add to this and do not take away from it, do not be more righteous than the Most High.

With God's help, you and I continue studying the weekly portion Re'e, and we will read from verse 2 of chapter 13 of the book of Devarim.

In the previous chapter Moshe warned the people of Israel not to adopt from the peoples who lived in Canaan before the Israelites the image of an evil god who only seeks to destroy them. And, following this, not to adopt the way of worshipping this god, when, so that the god does not destroy, one has to pass children through the fire, when one must by all means sacrifice someone, so that the god stops seeking our destruction. After this Moshe continues to warn about the possibility of sliding down into idolatry.

That is, not a pagan, not a stranger from distant lands, not a person who grew up in idolatry, but someone suddenly rises up from your midst, and you can say: “He is, after all, flesh of my flesh, blood of my blood, an Israelite.”

That is what happened. Someone came and said: “If I am a prophet, then let there be snowdrops in December in the Negev; if I am a prophet, then let a comet fly across the heavens,” and let us suppose that all this happened.

The commentators ask: is this speaking about a false prophet, about a person who is simply a fabricator, who decided to pass himself off as a prophet, or perhaps about a mentally ill person, or is it speaking about a person who makes use of an overheard prophecy (after all, there was no internet, it was impossible to “google” the situation and check). That is, perhaps he heard from some person who really is a prophet about some event that will happen, and understood that he could make use of this. The person came and passed this off as his own prophecy. Or, for example, as the commentator Menachem Rekanati, who lived in the 13th century, says: “There are people who possess supersensitivity, they really are able to some degree to predict the future, and it really seems to them that some power speaks through them.”

Why do we hear very many false prophecies today? Because a person expects prophecy, he expects that God will speak through him, and when some thought comes into his head, when some idea or some dream is born in him, for example: “If only all the members of our community received thirty times more for their donations,” then he takes this dream for a prophecy, is seduced by his own dreams and begins to deliver these prophecies “from there.” The multitude of false prophecies that we hear are not necessarily from people who are liars: most people believe in their prophecies. And here such a misfortune has happened, that the prophecy is confirmed. The person said: “There will be snowdrops in the Negev” – and there are snowdrops. The person said: “A comet will fly across the heavens” – and a comet flew by, and we do not know whether he overheard this, read it in the newspapers, or found out about it in some other way, but the prophecy came true.

How are we to act? Should we listen to him? And here Moshe says: for what, actually, is that which was said to you (lemór) by this prophet? He gave you a sign or a wonder in order to say to you: “Let us go after other gods and let us serve them.” He has the marks of a prophet, perhaps he has the same kind of beard as Moshe. And he too is eighty years old, like Moshe, and he too speaks little and does much. He has many-many-many examples by which one can say that here he is – a prophet, and on top of all this he also performs wonders and signs, and they come true. What, then, should one do in such a case?

But if he said to you: “Let us go after other gods,” then do not obey him, that is, do not look at those wonders and signs that he performs. Listen to what he says, but if in his prophecy there is even a certain tiny shade of let us go and bow down to other gods – do not obey this prophet. And why, then, does his prophecy come true, where do the signs come from? Because the LORD, your God, is testing you.

Do you really love God? What does it mean to love? What does it mean at all to love a person? Very often we confuse love with passion. If I love some woman only because I feel good with her – this is passion. I do not love her, I love myself next to her. Exactly the same way as I love fish or navy-style macaroni. When I really love a person, I know what he wants. When I love God, I know what He wants. And I know for certain that He does not want to destroy me. Therefore any prophet who says to me: “Let's go and bow down to Zeus, Krishna or Quetzalcoatl, otherwise something terrible will happen to you,” and any prophet who says: “Let's go and bow down to Krishna, Vishnu, Quetzalcoatl or whoever you like, otherwise something good will not happen to you. There the gods will give you more, or there the gods will save you from something,” any such prophet is a test of my love for the Most High. Will I go after another god if I am lured by something? All the more so when they perform a breathtaking sign.

Here Moshe warns: do not go after other gods, do not obey either the prophet or the dreamer. And why does it work for him? Because it is the LORD who is testing you.

Do not strive after other gods who, as it will seem to you, as some prophet will tell you, will give you more. This is a check, this is a test of your love for God. And how should one deal with this prophet?

That is, the prophet slandered God, about Whom you yourself know what He has already done for you. Destroy the evil from your midst, even if this prophet is an Israelite, just as sweet, just as burring his r's in Hebrew as you do. Perhaps he goes with you to the same synagogue? Perhaps he rides with you on the same bus? Or perhaps it will not be a prophet at all, but someone close to you?

A friend who is to you – like you yourself, like your own soul, that is indeed how it is in the literal translation – a soul friend (re'achá ashér kenafshechá).

If a person says to you: “Let's go and bow down to the neighbors' god Dagon,” or “Let's go with questions and for advice to the Papuan witch-tamasiThe Russian uses a playful made-up compound, literally “witch-tamas”. What its second part refers to is unclear, so it is kept as it stands.,” or “Let's go with the Eskimos to Mother Walrus” – it does not matter whether these are near gods or far gods, then:

Sometimes it is very hard – well, why do I say sometimes, it is always very hard to raise a hand against a person close to you, of whom we have said: maybe it is your wife, maybe it is your brother, the son of your mother, maybe your son, your daughter, the people closest to you, how can you not pity them? And here Moshe says: “Let your eyes not have mercy on him, and do not take pity on him, and do not cover for him.” One can say: “Dear, I won't tell anyone that you told me about this, let's forget this conversation.” Moshe says here: “No! Do not cover for him, even if this is the very, very closest person to you.”

It is always the custom that the person who was a witness, who does not doubt what he saw, who is without sin – he throws the first stone. Even though he is your son, even though this is your daughter, even though this is your wife, you must be the first to throw the stone, and only after that – the whole people. Of course, it is terrible, but even more terrible, as is evident, is to go after a foreign god.

That is, they will hear and fear what happens to a person who only thought of seducing others to walk after foreign gods.

So, there are cases when it is a prophet with signs, there are cases when it is a person close to you, and the closeness makes you seriously weigh it: shouldn't I listen to this person, who is simply my own flesh and blood? And there are still other cases.

The word bene-veliya'al – these are those who have nothing above themselves. That is, it so happened that you learn that a whole city has already gone after some people who preached there and pushed the city to follow other gods.

You know how often they say in marketing: “Millions of people can't be wrong.” Look, a whole city, this has already become generally accepted. Somewhere it is already legal, somewhere it is already in the order of things. That is: “There is nothing strange here in a whole city worshiping Dagon.” Maybe, following society, maybe, following the new fashion, I too will follow the avant-gardists from this city? A whole city has been seduced. What is to be done with it? Maybe follow the example of this city? What is to be done with all the inhabitants of this city who have already fallen away and gone after other gods? First of all, not to hurry.

That is, do not simply look it over or examine it, but try to gather as much testimony as possible, as much material as possible, carry out the work of collecting data and carefully sort out the data that you have gathered. Very often it happens that a person collects data, buys up dictionaries and reference books, but does not understand the subject. One can gather many materials on a case, gather anything you like on a case, but not understand the case. And here there is a command: “Sort out what you have gathered, examine attentively all the data you have gathered.” Find out the opinion of other people, of other witnesses, what the people themselves think, do not make a decision without hearing the people themselves, because you cannot always look inside a person, or rather, you can never look inside a person. Ask other people, other witnesses, be sure to listen to other opinions. Only after this make a serious decision. Before expelling and excommunicating someone, one must conduct a thorough investigation. So what is to be done with this city?

Nothing of what came into contact with the idolatry of Jews can be corrected, only destroyed.

That is, the very fact that such a city has appeared, that a whole city has appeared which has been seduced after other gods – this is already a manifestation of Divine wrath. And therefore you must take measures against this city. The sages argue about precisely this instruction concerning the city, and the majority of the sages say that this is precisely a theoretical instruction. There has never been such a thing and there never will be, that a whole city would turn and go after other gods. And only Rabbi Yochanan says: “But I have been on the ruins of such a city.” And then, perhaps, such a city is not theoretical knowledge. In any case, we do not know from history that this was done to any of the cities, but I am inclined to agree with Rabbi Yochanan that the Torah would hardly be speaking some theory which is intended only for academic study. Moshe would hardly be speaking about this in his speech, and it is quite possible that there may indeed be such a city, and such a thing may happen in Jewish history.

Moshe concludes with a prayer:

Do not listen to prophets, or to those close to you, or to society, or to high society, do not listen in regard to worshiping others, do not go after other gods. Worship only the LORD, your God, keep His commandments.

We continue to study the weekly portion Re'e and will read from the beginning of chapter 14 of the book of Devarim. Our chapter begins with remarkable words:

You are sons to the LORD, your God. Probably we should have met this phrase in the Torah long ago. What would we have liked to hear after this phrase? One could have read: “You are sons to the LORD, your God, therefore pray to Him, ask of Him, He will bless you in all your affairs.” This same phrase could have been read before the giving of the Ten Commandments. Indeed, practically anywhere in the Torah where the people of Israel are spoken of, we would expect to hear this phrase. And here Moshe says it. Moshe says: “You are sons to the LORD, your God.” So what follows from this? What is Moshe speaking about here? He says: “You are sons to the LORD, your God. All of you standing here are of the noblest origin, the most noble that can possibly be. You are not sons of a king, you are sons of the King of kings, therefore behave with dignity. Even when you are in mourning, even when someone close to you dies, behave with dignity and do not spoil your body. Earlier Moshe spoke about the need to keep away from idolatry and not to repeat the traditions and customs of idolaters, and he added: “Do not act as they do, because they act badly.” Now, however, Moshe speaks about something else: “You are sons of the LORD, your God, you are a holy people, and act in a way worthy of holy ones.” Now it is no longer about distancing from idolatry, but about drawing near to holiness. This is a completely different approach, a completely different motivation, and in verse 2 we read:

It is always very hard to translate the word segula. From the same root, samech-gimel-lamed, come the verbs mesugal (to be capable) and lehistagel (to adapt). What does it mean – am segula? It is a people through whom the Most High chose to act in this world. You are God's instrument in this world, a device for the manifestation of the Divine in the world, through you the LORD chose to act.

You are a holy people, and therefore you must behave as a holy people, as sons of the LORD, your God, behave with dignity, as befits noble people. Even when someone of yours dies, even when the heart is breaking with pain for the deceased, do not inflict injuries on yourselves, do not tear out your hair (and this was then a very accepted expression of emotions). Moshe says: “You are different, because you are sons to the LORD, your God. You are a holy people, whom the LORD has chosen, behave with dignity.” The same applies to food as well.

What does do not eat any abomination mean? And how will we know what is an abomination and what is not? And Moshe says: “Since you are a chosen holy people, since you are sons of the LORD, your God, you must have an inner sense of revulsion at unclean food.” And further comes a detailed description (which we have already met in the book of Vayikra) of what may and what may not be eaten.

In verse 4 we read about the livestock that may be eaten.

Of the livestock we may eat beef, mutton and goat meat – this is what is permitted.

In verse 5 we will read a list of wild animals that are permitted as food. And a reservation must be made right away: there are many different variants of translations of the names of these animals. Why? Because the names of these animals have not been preserved, and translators understand these names differently, so we will read them, but this is rather conventional.

Regarding the last animal, which in Hebrew is called zamer, there are also very many different opinions. In the Synodal translation it is called camelopard. The camelopard is a mythical animal, it never existed, it is a cross between a leopard and a camel with the head of a giraffe. It was usually drawn on coats of arms as a symbol of might, cruelty, strength. In a word, a mythical animal. This is a calque from Greek, where this animal is called lynx camel. Such a creature. In later translations they began to call it saiga. Rabbi Saadya Gaon, translator of the Torah into Arabic and a well-known commentator, who lived in the 10th century, says that zamer is most likely the giraffe. This tradition has been preserved in the Eastern Jewish communities, and most likely what is meant here really is the giraffe.

Besides those signs of kosher animals that are given in the Torah, there is one more amazing sign: the milk of kosher animals always curdles. One can make cheese or cottage cheese from cow's milk, from sheep's milk, from goat's milk, and from giraffe's milk one can also make cottage cheese and cheese. There is a farm in Israel that is reviving the use of giraffes as food and produces giraffe cheese. The giraffe is a protected animal, today it may not be slaughtered, but the milk may be used, therefore giraffe cottage cheese and cheese are produced in Israel. And most likely the zamer mentioned here is the giraffe. But I leave this as “most likely,” because nobody knows for certain.

In verse 6 a general definition is given.

That is, a sign is given: a split hoof and regurgitating food.

The camel really is a ruminant animal, but its hoof is not split. In fact, it has no hooves at all, the camel belongs to the group of callus-footed animals. Regarding the hare and the hyrax there is, of course, a big dispute, and many researchers say: “Well, here you have it written about the hare and about the hyrax: because they regurgitate food, but their hooves are not split, they are unclean for you. How then do the hare and the hyrax regurgitate food? They do not regurgitate food, and this proves that your authors of the Torah knew nothing. This was written simply by people, and moreover by people who did not study biology in the fifth grade of school.” What can be answered to this? Of course, the Torah is not a biology textbook, and the classification that the Torah gives here is not a biological classification. A person was not supposed to dissect the digestive system of hares and hyraxes, and what is meant is that in appearance it really looks as though they regurgitate food. Therefore the Torah warns: “Here, it seems that they regurgitate food, but they have unsplit hooves, do not eat them.” I repeat: the Torah is not a biology textbook, it is not obliged to correspond to later biological classifications.

From verse 9 the Torah gives instructions regarding sea animals.

In the book of Vayikra (11:9) we read an addition: everything that has scales and fins in the water. Why is this important? There are kinds of fish (for example, the very common mackerel) that have scales while they are in the water. When the mackerel is taken out of the water, the scales wash off it, and in the end we see it without scales. It may seem to us that it has fins but no scales. Therefore we may think that mackerel may not be eaten. But since the Torah adds in the book of Vayikra “everything that has scales and fins in the water”, we must check this. The mackerel has scales in the water, and that means it is permitted as food. I am speaking about this because many who begin to keep kosher food give up mackerel, saying: “We don't see any scales on it.” This is the kind of addition that is important to make.

And again, as I did before verse 5, a warning must be given that in fact we do not know the names of most of these birds, and the translation here is quite conventional. There are many dictionaries, many disputes, many analyses regarding these birds, but nobody knows the exact name, so I will repeat that the translations are conventional.

On the one hand, the Torah permits eating the meat of animals, fish and birds; on the other hand, out of the whole variety of animals, fish and birds the Torah permits only a few kinds. Compared with the whole variety of animals, meat is, one could say, forbidden to us. Neither an elephant, nor a hippopotamus, nor a whale, nor a vulture can we eat. Our power to use animals for food is still limited, and eating meat is not always healthy; eating the meat of most animals is still forbidden.

In verse 21 we read the conclusion of the instructions concerning food.

Since it is forbidden to touch the carcass of non-kosher animals, it is clear that what is meant here is only the carcass of kosher animals. About non-kosher ones there is no talk at all; that carcass may not even be touched. There are peoples who eat carrion, dead animals. And if some person lives peacefully in your gates, is not in the covenant with the Most High, has not taken upon himself any commandments, then to the stranger who is a permanent resident with you and with whom you live peacefully, you may give the meat of a dead animal as a gift. To the stranger you can simply give it, but to the foreigner it is better to sell it. With the stranger one must keep peace, but with the foreigner one can have business relations. That is, the question: “Is it allowed to earn money on the meat of a dead animal that is forbidden as food?” And the Torah says here: “It is allowed, sell it, the main thing is, do not eat it yourself, because you are a holy people to the LORD, your God.”

And again, after the mention of holiness, a commandment is repeated which we have also already encountered in the Torah – do not cook a kid in its mother's milk. This commandment is surprising in that the meat of a kid is permitted separately, milk is permitted separately, but some kind of mixing of them is forbidden. Concerning this commandment there is, of course, an endless multitude of disputes. There are commentators who say: “This has nothing at all to do with cooking. What is meant is that the kid is kept for a long, long time on its mother's milk,” for the word tevashel (from the verb levashel) also means to ripen, and in this way a particularly tender milk-fed kid is obtained. That is, the Torah here forbids, in the opinion of these commentators, making changes to nature: for example, when geese are fattened in a special way so that they have a large liver, or when roosters are castrated so that they have special meat, or when cows are hung on special swings and given beer to drink, and various other things which seem to be permitted, but the Torah forbids them here. So say some commentators. According to halacha, what is meant here is the prohibition of mixing dairy and meat. Milk is robbery: when we drink milk, we rob the cow, we take from her the milk which is intended for her calf. When we take the meat of a cow, we kill her. And the commentators say: “Here the mixing of robbery and murder is forbidden; do not add robbery to murder.” Again what is meant is nobility and holiness. And here it says: “To cook a kid in its mother's milk – this is ignoble.”

The book of Shemot speaks of this in the context of the festival of Sukkot, when in autumn the neighboring peoples cooked a kid in its mother's milk. Abarbanel, a medieval commentator, says that he heard that in his times such a custom also existed in England. If earlier this commandment was given as a separation from a pagan custom, here it already says: “Leave the pagans, leave idolatry, you are a holy people, and mixing dairy and meat, cooking a kid in its mother's milk does not befit the status of a holy people. It is not fitting for you, as a holy people, to do this.”

Of course, in the cuisine of many peoples in our time there are dishes in which dairy and meat are mixed, from the cheeseburger to lasagna or moussaka. And, of course, this commandment causes many disputes. Why? Because the sages decreed that one must not only not cook a kid in its mother's milk, but in general separate dairy and meat, separate the dishes. For in the pores of the dishes, if the dishes are porous, meat and milk may remain. When we pour hot milk into a dish in whose pores there is meat, or the other way around, cooking will take place – even if in minuscule quantities, it will take place, and one must exercise caution in this matter. But glass dishes or some modern dishes that do not absorb food need not be separated. For some this is excessive caution, for some this is an addition to the commandments of the Torah, and for some this is an effort to keep the commandment of the Torah as carefully as possible, so that even in minimal quantities there is no cooking of meat in milk. And since this is a person's standing before the Most High, it is, of course, for the person to decide this question. Or, let's say, to wait six hours after eating meat in order to eat dairy. For some this is a stringency, and a serious stringency, because after a portion of shashlik you want to drink coffee with milk. For some this is again a question of standing before the Most High. Naturally, such an interpretation of the commandment causes very many disputes.

I advise those who argue to study the history of how these commandments arose, the motives, why these commandments and stringencies appeared, and only then to enter into the dispute about whether the commandments of God have been replaced here by human commandments, whether what is meant here is simply a human stringency or, after all, a manifestation of nobility. This is an open question; I am not saying that there is some final position on this question. This is a dispute, and this dispute will probably go on for a long time yet.

With God's help, you and I continue to study the weekly portion Re'e, and we will read from verse 22 of chapter 14 of the book of Devarim.

Every year separate a tithe from all your harvest. What is meant here is not the tithe that is given to the Levite. What is meant is what is called ma'aser sheni or the second tithe. Suppose a person has a harvest of a hundred tons of grapes. Of these hundred tons he gives ten tons to the Levite. Then the Levite in turn gives one ton to the kohen. From the remaining ninety tons the second ma'aser (the second tithe) is separated – nine tons. And now our portion tells what to do with these nine tons of grapes. I am speaking of nine tons of grapes just as an example.

Here is what you do with the second ma'aser, with the second tithe: you carry it to the place which the LORD has chosen for the dwelling of His name. In our case, for example, to Jerusalem. Today there is no Temple, and these commandments are not so relevant. You must bring this grain, these grapes, all the fruits from your field (the second ma'aser, the second tithe)  to Jerusalem together with your family. There you will celebrate the harvest, you will celebrate the blessing of the LORD: eat this before the face of the LORD, so that you learn to fear the LORD, so that you bless the LORD and remember that the source of all your blessing is the LORD. But there are perishable products and a long road. Therefore the Torah says:

You will not be able to bring all your produce to Jerusalem, because you will live far from Jerusalem. Your land will become large, and grapes, cherries, peaches, pears – all these perishable fruits you will not be able to carry all the way to Jerusalem. And driving lambs and young bulls to Jerusalem will also be difficult.

If the Most High blesses the people of Israel in that the territory of the land of Israel grows, then, accordingly, places appear that will be farther and farther from Jerusalem, so that the fruit can no longer be carried there. A person who lives in the provinces, far from Jerusalem, maybe several weeks' journey from Jerusalem, may get a feeling that often arises in people in the provinces: “I live far away, and I would so like to live in the capital or near the capital, near that place which the Most High chose!” And it is a little hurtful – to live in the provinces. But here Moshe says: the fact that you live in the provinces, the very fact that there are provinces – this is a testimony that the Most High has blessed you. Living in the provinces, settling distant lands, you take part in the Most High blessing your people. But fruit, of course, spoils. What is to be done then?

To put it in modern language: sell your harvest and take money instead. If it is far for you to go with your fruit, then you sell it for money and with this money you go to Jerusalem (there is a rule that one must redeem it at a greater value than the market value, but we will not go into the subtleties of these laws now). And there you come to the place which the LORD chose.

When you come to this place – eat there everything your soul pleases, buy with money for your festival everything that pleases your soul. That is, for beef, and for mutton, and for goat meat – for all this you can pay with this silver. As we have already said, a person goes to Jerusalem, goes to the holy place and takes with him his whole house: his family, and servants, and slaves, if he has them, and all together they go to Jerusalem for the festival. Today, how can one fulfill this commandment? One can put aside some sums for the festival. If a person's budget happens to be limited and the person cannot celebrate – well, there is not enough money for the festivals, then one can put it aside, in order to celebrate the great festivals from this money that was put aside. So, you come to the place which the LORD chose, and you celebrate there, you and your house. And whom must one not forget?

And the Levite and his family you must also invite, because his allotment is God, and you must take care of the Levite. This is how one must act in the first, second, fourth and fifth year of the seven-year cycle. But in the third and the sixth one must act differently.

That is, in the third and sixth year of the seven-year cycle you do not go with all your harvest to the holy place, but you distribute your harvest to the poor where you live.

By the stranger is meant one who has joined your people and who perhaps has no relatives who can support him, who has no land allotment.

So, in the first, second, fourth and fifth years a person brings the second tithe to the holy place, and there celebrates together with his family. In the third and in the sixth years a person distributes the tithe to the poor in his city. The first is done so that a person would remember and fear God, so that he would come into the presence of God, celebrate in the presence of God and through this learn to fear Him. And about the second it will be said: if you help the poor, if you show care for the poor, for widows, orphans, strangers, for the Levites, then the LORD will bless every work of your hands. That is what concerns the tithes.

With this chapter 14 ends, and we will read chapter 15.

The word shmita comes from the verb lishmot (to let go from the hands, to drop, to throw off from the hands, to cast off from the hands).

How is this – holds in his hand? That is, he senses by touch how he will get it back. And one can also look at it differently: as if with his hand he holds the money which is now with another – with the one to whom he lent it; he holds his hand in someone else's pocket or in someone else's house, the tactile sensation of a clenched hand. Let go of the hand, let go, get rid of the feelings that you own what you have lent to someone. If this someone was not able to return it to you by the seventh year – let go, let go of everything, rely on the LORD, give everything to the LORD. Our grievances, some of our troubles, some of our wounds from childhood or from adult life can also hold us at the level of bodily sensations. And it is worth freeing ourselves from them too, they are also a clenching somewhere in us – so psychology says. The Torah speaks about release from debts, about release from the feeling that someone owes you. And in exactly the same way one can get rid of grievances and of some traumas.

 The word yiggos, which is used here, can be translated as extort, demand by force that something be handed over, as opposed to collect. A debt that a person owes you can be collected, but since you have released it, demanding repayment of the debt will be extortion.

Thanks to the ability to forgive and to rely on the Most High, you will be able to go on lending, lending to foreigners. Your economy will develop so much that foreigners will borrow from you, and you will not borrow from them. You will have power over them, while they will not have any power over you. And what is to be done with the poor among your own people?

Again it speaks about some bodily sensations. Sometimes it is so frightening to give something to a brother or to a neighbor. And this is felt at the bodily level, at the level of micro-movements, at the level of body language, as a clenching of the hand. And instead of the clenching of the hand, what should the reflex movement be?

In order to fight your own greed, make an effort, relax your hand, open your hand, let go out of your hand.

And with lending lend – this repetition indicates an action done willingly, that is, lend to him with all your desire (and I will remind you that within the people of Israel one may lend only without interest). Help him make up everything that he lacks. A person may decide that his brother is fine and the brother is simply acting up because he has it too good, that in fact, by my notions, since you have bread and margarine, and over there I saw four eggs in your fridge, then you have enough of everything. No, says the Torah, you give him everything that he lacks. That is, help him reach, with the help of your loan, help him reach the level which he wants to reach, which he lacks.

Why is such a warning needed? Indeed, one may fear that the brother will drag it out for seven years and then simply not return the debt. And Moshe warns about this:

We spoke about the word veliya'al (in the commentary to verse 14 of chapter 13) – these are those who have no authority above themselves, the godless, that is, so that no godless thought appears in you.

And your eye becomes bad – at one point we spoke about this process: first the heart goes bad, then the eyes go bad. The eyes see and look the way the heart directs them. And a person may think: “Aha, two weeks are left until the beginning of the seventh year. Chaim came and asks to lend him money, because he is going to travel somewhere and buy goods. He, of course, will not return this money to me, this is all a game and a show. In fact, he is not borrowing money from me. After all, he says: I am borrowing from you and leaving for a month, and in two weeks it is the year of shmita (the year of release), and I will have to forgive him the debt. Why, this Chaim – he is simply a scoundrel and a swindler.” Moshe says that this is a wrong thought. And these eyes which mislead you, they mislead you because your heart has already gone a bit bad. What should one do in such a case?

With giving give – that is, in an impulse of the heart give to him. Just as we said: relax your hand and give willingly. And here the same: make an effort over your heart, over your eyes, make a micro-movement in the other direction – and give. Because thanks to this the LORD will bless you in everything you do in your life: in raising children, in arranging your family, maybe in arranging your home, in all your everyday affairs and in your professional activity, in the field, in the garden or in the city. Moshe says here: “Do not be afraid that Chaim will not give you back this money. More important than money, more important, maybe, than the fact that Chaim will not return the debt to you – is the blessing of the Most High. You will not end up at a loss because you lend money to Chaim.”

That is, you will always have needy people whom you must take care of, so that they are not needy. It is laid upon you that the needy cease to be needy; this will never stop. I foresee questions, and indeed a very serious dilemma arises when some person appears in our life who borrows money. Borrows time after time, constantly not giving it back. And I think: one must remember that nobody has canceled common sense. There is a person who does not cope with his budget because it does not work out for him. He works, but he cannot support himself, he does not manage to support his family, and he is truly deprived, he is truly needy, he is truly poor, and he needs help in order to recover, in order to stop being poor. And there is a difference between such a person and a person who takes, relying on the fact that he is poor, and wants to remain poor, needy, in order to borrow money. And one must, of course, with a pure heart before the Most High, check what is going on, who is turning to you, and make a decision on the basis of this. And it happens that a person has become so impoverished, God forbid, that he is forced to sell himself into slavery.

Even if a person sold himself into slavery for debts, hired himself out to you as a worker and said: “I will serve you for my debts,” then however many debts there may be, at the end of the sixth year you must let him go. More than that:

One might say: “Fine, you sold yourself to me into slavery for debts. You worked six years. That is still little compared with how much you owe me. And therefore just pack your things and go home, you are free, the seventh year has come.” But the Torah says here: no, it will not work to send him home empty-handed.

But with a gift give a gift – here we often encounter these repeated words. That is, with all your soul teach yourself to give him gifts with joy: relax your hand, cleanse your heart and, letting him go, let something of your own go along with him.

 In order to make it easier for you to relax and give, remember: this is what the LORD has blessed you with; this is, in essence, the LORD's.

Remember this even after many generations. In the times of the First Temple or in the times of the Second Temple, when more than a thousand years already separate a person from the slavery in the land of Egypt, be guided by the fact that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, you were a slave and you were set free. This is not your history – this is your genetic code. I, the LORD, write into your DNA, into your genetic code, to remember this and therefore to free your slave. And not simply to free him in the seventh year, but to free him and give him gifts.

And what if it turns out that a person gets used to living with you for various reasons?

That is, it does not matter what sex the slave is, if he wants to stay: whether a man or a woman, his ear is pierced at the door and he becomes a slave forever. From the point of view, so to speak, of the slave owner, this means that if a person who sold himself into slavery wants the slave owner to take responsibility for him for his whole life, then the slave owner must do this. He may not say to him: “No, your years are over – you are free. Leave, I do not want to support you any longer.” Even if this slave is old and even if the slave owner gets little use out of him.

There is an interesting explanation of why a person's ear is pierced. It is said thus: the ear that heard the words at Sinai, the ear that heard that we are slaves to the LORD, but decided to become a slave of a man, is pierced as a punishment. Of course, by the ear the person is meant, and the ear reflects only a certain quality of the person – hearing the voice of God. And what if the person does leave after all?

Here it speaks about feelings, that is, a person is not simply told: let go, let go, and it does not matter at all how you feel while doing it. No, there is another side to this too: you must not simply do it, but do it with certain feelings. This is very important. In order to receive the blessing of the LORD, one must not simply let the slave go, not simply say: “I did what You commanded me – I let him go. More than that, I even gave him gifts. Oh, how hard it is for me! So bless me now.” No, one must let him go and not feel this heaviness. Let your slave go with a light heart, let your traumas go with a light heart, let your grievances go with a light heart. When this is truly letting go, and not some formal action, only then does the blessing of the Most High come.

From verse 19 another topic begins.

The firstborn of the livestock is consecrated to the LORD and, accordingly, is handed over to the kohanim.

And since here the matter concerns the firstborn of the livestock, which are handed over to the kohen, then apparently eat, you and your house is also said about him. The kohen and those who live in his house have the right to eat of this meat.

Why, after all these commandments, does the commandment about the firstborn come? It is always a joy (let us remember Matroskin the cat, when the cow had a calf) when a firstborn is born to the livestock, and it can be hard to consecrate it to the Most High. And here is the same demand, connected with overcoming one's own greed, with overcoming one's own desire not to give, to hold on. And it is said: yes, the Most High gave this to you; if you consecrate this to the Most High, then you will see a greater blessing; give this to the kohen. And the kohen, accordingly, must treat this as something holy, perceive it as God's blessing and eat it before God in fear, in holiness, in purity.

With God's help, you and I continue the study of the weekly portion Re'e, and we will read from verse 1 of chapter 16 of our book Devarim.

How can one observe or keep a month? This phrase has given rise to very many disputes.

Some say this: since aviv, the first month of the year, in which we celebrate the festival of Pesach, requires very much work in the service of the Most High (one must clean the house of leaven, prepare the Passover sacrifice, slaughter the Passover sacrifice, go to Jerusalem), Moshe begins with such an introduction. Keep the month of aviv here in the sense of keep all the commandments of the month of aviv, prepare for it in advance, pay attention to this month and in this way observe it.

Others say that here one must put the emphasis precisely on the word ha'aviv as a season of the year. We read that aviv is barley coming into ear. And therefore there are those who say that aviv is the time when the barley comes into ear, and precisely at this time one must celebrate the festival of Pesach, precisely at this time one must set the month of aviv. But the word aviv has a broader meaning and in general can mean blossoming. Thus, we encounter in the book of Iyov the word ve'ibbo (in its very bloom). In Tanach there is the city of Tel-Aviv, after which the modern Tel-Aviv is named – the greening hill. If we speak of other Semitic languages, there is one more city which contains the word aviv in its name, although this is not so obvious if the ear is not musical enough for Semitic languages. This is the city of Addis Ababa. The word addis is akin to the Hebrew word chadash (new), from which, by the way, the word chodesh (month) also comes. And the word abeba means flower. Thus, aviv can mean spring, blossoming, greening in general, and not necessarily, or not at all necessarily, the greening of barley specifically. And then one can say: every time the grass turns green, the sun is shining, when spring begins, remember that aviv is coming and prepare for Pesach.

One more opinion: aviv, the first month of the Jewish calendar, is important to keep precisely in this month, it is important that it be precisely in spring, because in Egypt, when we were leaving it, this was the month of happiness. The Egyptians, according to this opinion, considered the Ram their chief deity. And the time of the constellation of the Ram in the zodiac was the happiest time for them. The LORD made it so that in the month of the Ram (in the month when the Ram is at its very peak, when, according to Egyptian mythology, it is the patron of Egypt) the Jews slaughtered rams and the people of Israel came out of Egypt. This is a special victory; it must be especially remembered.

According to tradition, the sages (at least, as far as we know, since the times of the Second Temple) tried to bring the lunar calendar into agreement with the lunisolar and solar calendars so that aviv really always fell in spring, that is, at the time after the spring equinox. In order for this to happen regularly, once every few years one more additional month was added to the year, adar. The twelfth month of the year, the last month of the year, the one which precedes the month of aviv, is adar. If it turned out, as the calculations showed, that after adar spring would not yet have come, the blossoming would not yet have come, then the year was declared a leap year and one more month was added to adar. In order to go deeper into this, one needs to know astronomy deeply, and probably we will not immerse ourselves in it. Let us say only that there were many different other calendars in use. For example, there was the calendar of Qumran, where the first month, nisan, always began on Wednesday, on the fourth day of creation, on which the sun was created. And according to this calendar it turned out that Pesach always fell on Shabbat, and, accordingly, Shavuot always fell on Sunday. There were also other calendars. How this is connected with Shavuot and why it must be connected with Shavuot (with Pentecost), we will still talk about. In a word, this phrase: observe the month of aviv caused very many disputes.

Further on it is even more interesting. Why is it not written that on the 14th at dusk one must make the Pesach sacrifice? If someone reads this verse without knowing everything that was written earlier, one might think that chodesh means precisely the new moon of aviv (nisan), and that precisely on the first day one must make the Pesach sacrifice. Why did Moshe choose to tell the people of Israel about this precisely in this way? Because here Moshe is not speaking about the time of the festivals; here it is not about chronology. Our portion, our section, speaks about holiness and abundance, about whether a feast held in Jerusalem is shameful or whether it can be holy. When a person is blessed with meat and the fruits of the land, will it be a holy act to come and celebrate this in Jerusalem? And here the Torah says that holiness is not in asceticism, not only in asceticism, that one may come and celebrate in Jerusalem. That is what this is about here.

So, remember the month of aviv and make Pesach to the LORD, your God. And further on there is also a very strange phrase. What does it mean that the LORD brought you out of Egypt by night? It seems we remember that the Jews were commanded to stay in their houses until morning, and only in the morning did the Jews begin to go out of Egypt. Why then is it said here that it was by night? Pharaoh released the people at night. He woke up in the middle of the night and, under the pressure of all Egypt (because all the squares in Egypt were overflowing with funeral processions and demonstrations against Pharaoh demanding that the Jews be released immediately), precisely at night Pharaoh released the Jews, and from this moment, one can say, the liberation took place. Although we will return to this question in our discussion. And since this happened at night, and since the first sacrifice was eaten at night, here we can say that from this also comes such a command – to eat the Passover sacrifice also at night.

It is also very strange to read from the small livestock and from the large livestock. We know that on Pesach a lamb is offered as a sacrifice. Why do we suddenly speak about small livestock and about large livestock? Where did the large livestock come from? The point is that here Moshe does not set himself the goal of describing the sacrifices; they are described in another place. Here Moshe describes the festival. You have come to the festival, you have brought the Pesach sacrifice – well done. Besides this, celebrate! Slaughter large livestock, small livestock, celebrate together with your family. Have you come for seven days to celebrate or, maybe, have you come to celebrate for a smaller amount of time? Well then, celebrate wholeheartedly, feast and slaughter, if you want to, if it pleases your soul, large livestock too, celebrate together with your family.

One cannot say that unleavened bread is much cheaper in its production than some other flatbreads. One can make flatbreads that will be not much more expensive than matza. What then is meant here by the bread of poverty? Bread that is eaten the way the poor eat. It is held (at that time, apparently, this was a tradition) that the poor break bread, they do not eat from a whole loaf, they get pieces of bread. In exactly the same way matza is broken, it is eaten in pieces. And you will eat in exactly the same way. You will eat this meat, a symbol of abundance, with the bread of poverty, with the memory that you were once a slave, and not everything was always good for you. Why did they eat matza originally? Here Moshe reminds: because you hastily went out of the land of Egypt. Well, everyone probably knows this story, which is described in the book of Shemot. The word chipazon means haste, supernatural speed, that is, something happening in a wondrous way. And this is not only the bread of poverty, it is also the bread of remembrance of the miracle; for this, for seven days one must eat this meat with unleavened bread.

That is, everything that you slaughtered in the evening, eat up before morning. This is what people who feast do; they do not count on something being left over from the feast for tomorrow.

You cannot slaughter the Pesach sacrifice in your own city; you must come to the place which the LORD will choose.

Here again there is something strange: erev – this is evening; kevo hashemesh – this is shki'a (sunset, the setting of the sun). And these are different times: there is sunset, there is the coming out of the stars. We read in another place in the Torah that the sacrifice must be slaughtered ben ha'arbayim– at twilight, precisely between sunset and evening.

The commentators say that different things are stated here: one is about when to eat the sacrifice, the other about when to slaughter the sacrifice. But again I will remind you that Moshe here speaks not about chronology, but speaks about abundance. Therefore it is about something a little different (although, of course, the explanation that one is about the slaughter and the other about when to eat this sacrifice is correct). And why is it written here that this is the time of the going out from Egypt? Fine, we said last time that the night is the time of the going out from Egypt, because at night Pharaoh gave the people permission to leave Egypt, and this is a victory of international politics, and this can be considered the time of deliverance. Why then is it said here that the time of slaughtering the Pesach sacrifice is the time of your going out from Egypt? Imagine a slave who was a slave for two hundred years and more, and now he slaughters the deity of the people with whom he was a slave – he slaughters a lamb. This is an inner liberation. Therefore at the time when the Pesach sacrifice was slaughtered, this slaughter of the sacrifice was accompanied by a song of liberation. In this they saw the beginning of beginnings of liberation, the beginning of beginnings of the people's going out from Egypt. Therefore the time when the sacrifice was slaughtered is the time of liberation. And again it is interesting that Moshe first says at night, then says in the evening, at the time of the slaughter of the sacrifice. At every moment look and find for yourself a place in your soul, a reason in your soul for a festival. In everything you do, look and learn to see the stages of deliverance. What for? In order to celebrate before the LORD, in order to rejoice and be glad before the LORD, that is what for.

One may say: wait, wait, what does uvishalta – and you will boil mean? How is it suddenly – you will boil? After all, we say and repeat that the Pesach sacrifice is a sacrifice roasted on fire; it must not be boiled. There is another sacrifice which is prepared before the Pesach sacrifice, the sacrifice chagiga (festive); it may be boiled. Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi), to whom we often turn, says here that the word bishalta (boiled) means prepared, and by preparation roasting on fire is meant. This is a possible understanding, but not the only one, because the question still remains why the Torah uses precisely this verb. Again I will repeat, here it is not only about sacrifices, here it is about celebration, about a feast. And since, in addition to the Pesach sacrifice, you also slaughter bulls and maybe goats, you also prepare lots and lots of meat for yourself and for all your friends, then boil it and celebrate. Celebrate your abundance, eat, do not be shy to eat meat in the holiest place – in the place which the LORD has chosen. And this meat you may eat boiled, smoked, stewed, as goulash, as pilaf and however you please.

Further. What morning is being spoken about? Have we finished eating the Pesach sacrifice, have we celebrated? And what, now early in the morning, on the festival of the first day of Pesach, a person will saddle a donkey, hoist his family onto donkeys, and as a whole family they will set off toward their tent, their home, which may be two hundred kilometers from here? Well, or one may think that a person pitches his tent near Jerusalem and goes to eat somewhere at a common feast. Neither the one nor the other, of course, is being spoken about here. It is about the fact that a person must spend two nights in Jerusalem. That is, the whole first day we celebrate, and, when the first day of Pesach has ended, when the first day, on which it is forbidden to do any work, has ended, we do not shout with joy: “Hooray! The day is over! Now finally we can get on the donkeys and go home, we will be home just by morning!” No, you will stay one more night and only in the morning will you go home. That is, on the morning of the first day after the end of the festival of Pesach you will go home.

And the next verse also contains strange words.

And earlier we said that one must eat unleavened bread for seven days (Shemot 13:6, Vayikra 23:6). Why is it suddenly said here about six? This is actually not an exception, but a certain addition. Six days eat unleavened bread – this is not a command to eat unleavened bread continuously all six days or to eat unleavened bread continuously all seven days. But since we can conclude from this that on the seventh day a person may eat, or may also not eat, then the six days must be understood in exactly the same way. During all seven days you may eat unleavened bread. You may not eat bread, it is forbidden to eat sour, leavened bread. But unleavened bread you may eat, or you may also not eat. If you want to eat bread, eat unleavened bread. If you do not want to, do not eat it at all. When is there an obligation to eat unleavened bread? Only with the first Pesach sacrifice, only with it do you eat unleavened bread. And on the remaining days, the six days and the seventh day – if you want, eat, and if you want, do not eat. On the seventh day – a festival, do not do any work on it, neither you nor anyone else in your house, as on an ordinary festival.

What is Moshe telling us? I will remind you, here we encounter neither the date 14 Nisan, nor 15 Nisan, nor the 14th day of the first month, nor the 15th day of the first month. We encounter no dates at all here, because here it is not about dates, but here it is about abundance. About an abundance of everything with which one can celebrate, about the fact that in holiness one can eat, eat much and tastily, if it is in the place which God has chosen, if it is with the family, with the male slave, with the female slave, with the Levite, whom you have also taken care of. That is, holiness is not asceticism; holiness is the ability to rejoice in the blessing of the Most High, to make merry together with everyone in the blessing of the Most High and to enjoy tasty food from all that with which the Most High has blessed you.

With God's help we continue our study of the weekly portion Re'e and will read from verse 9 of chapter 16 of the book of Devarim.

This is an undefined time: we are told that it is from the moment the sickle is laid on the ears of grain. And when will the sickle be laid on the ears of grain?

We can look for the answer in the book of Vayikra (23:10,11), where it is said that the first omer (sheaf) is brought on the day after the Shabbat. Here the question arises: “And after which Shabbat?” On this point four opinions were born.

The Pharisees, who are rightly considered the founders of the Judaism that we have now, say that the Shabbat is the first day of the festival of Pesach. Well, whether they say this, we will still check, but, according to the understanding of modern Judaism, by Shabbat the first day of Pesach is meant. And, accordingly, the count begins on the day after the first day of Pesach, in the evening, when the festival of Pesach ends.

The Tzdukim (Sadducees, from the Greek) held this: if Shabbat falls on one of the days of the Pesach week, then on the day after this Shabbat one must bring the omer. This is the second opinion.

The Samaritans, who lived in Shomron, held that the Shabbat is the seventh day of the festival of Pesach, and at the end of the seventh day of the festival of Pesach, on the next day, one must bring this omer sacrifice and one must begin the count.

There was also a fourth opinion, that from the first Shabbat that comes after the end of the festival of Pesach, precisely from it one must begin the count.

All four variants tie the beginning of the count in one way or another to the festival of Pesach, about which not a single word at all is said in the book of Vayikra. How can one understand at least, let us say, the Pharisaic variant? Today there are very many commentators who try to prove that in all other cases the word Shabbat means precisely Shabbat, that is, that Shabbat which was at the very beginning of creation, in the week of Bereshit; it is precisely the Sabbath day. But here, in our case, the word Shabbat means festival, and therefore it must be understood as on the day after the festival. But when this law was established, they were guided by a completely different understanding. Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakai, who lived at the end of the 1st century of the Common Era, said (and indeed, this is also logical) that barley, oats, rye, any grain at all, any tree at all ripens differently every year. And one cannot begin the harvest on one and the same date, simply because the harvest may begin three weeks later, because the grain simply has not yet come into ear. Or it happens the other way round, that one must begin earlier. Let us imagine that someone said that one must begin some action from the moment when, well, let us say, the apple trees blossom in Ukraine. And the question arises: “And where in Ukraine? Maybe in Cherkasy? Maybe in Odesa? Maybe in Sumy?” And in different places the apple trees, of course, will blossom differently. What is there to say, on the sunny side of the street and in the shade an apple tree may blossom differently. And how are we to know at what time the time of the barley harvest will be? And how are we to know this when many Jews live in Babylon? There is no internet, there are neither cell phones nor ordinary phones, there is not even a telegraph. One can send a messenger somewhere, who will arrive three weeks later and say: “And you know, there, in Israel, the barley has come into ear, we have begun the harvest.” And in this way the ceremony of cutting the first sheaf, which Moshe speaks about here, will take place. Maybe for Babylon it is still possible, but what about when a person lives in Bobruisk, or in Addis Ababa, or in New York, and there is no internet, there is no radio? How is he to know? And the sages held (and this is correct) that the Torah does not establish some specific day for the beginning of the harvest. How did Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakai understand this? He said that the Torah speaks by way of example. If you began the count from the Sabbath, then count up to the seventh Sabbath and on the next day make the festival of Shavuot; this is an example. That is, if you began from Thursday, then on the day after the seventh Thursday you will have the festival of Shavuot, and so on. After all, further on, in chapter 23 of the book of Vayikra, the Torah speaks of the seventh Sabbath; this, of course, cannot be a festival. And why must one speak of the seventh Sabbath? Precisely because the Sabbath is an example, and the example is developed further. And beginning the day with the barley harvest – that you choose yourselves, when. And it is not at all necessary that this date must be tied to Pesach. But since the urban population grew, since part of the people began to live in galut, in exile, it was impossible for the whole people somehow to know simultaneously about the festival of Shavuot, for the whole people to know when this barley harvest begins. And since the Most High gave certain specific instructions that the people may choose for itself, the sages decided: “And we will choose in advance and for a long time. We will choose that the day of the beginning of the count is the day after the festival of Pesach.” And not because it is Shabbat; Shabbat originally had nothing at all to do with it here. Precisely this position was held by Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakai somewhere around the year 70–80 of the 1st century CE. Precisely this position was held by Rabbi Yehuda haLevi in the 10th century CE. This was the approach of Judaism. Why did we establish such a date? Because the sages have the right.

What is a person to do who lives in Babylon and does not know when to celebrate the festival of Shavuot? He comes to the sages, as he was told: if something is unclear to you, then come to the sages who will be in your generation and ask them. He came and asked. They told him: “Let us establish a conventional date when, statistically, the barley harvest in Israel may begin.” And they decided that it would be on the day after the festival of Pesach. And from that time on it became the custom. Since a wrong interpretation was born, connected with the fact that the sages understood the word Shabbat in this way, a multitude of commentaries were born which prove that the name of the festival is Shabbat in the book of Vayikra, although this is not so at all; the one has nothing to do with the other.

As for the other opinions: are the Samaritans right, are the Sadducees right? Well, of course, if someone went to a Sadducean teacher, then the Sadducean teacher told him what he told him. If someone went to the Samaritans, went to the Samaritan teachers, it is clear that they told him the way they told him. And one must remember a very important thing, that there is such a value as the unity of the Jewish people. The Torah was given to Israel, and not Israel to the Torah. This is important to remember.

Here is a good example. Rut the Moavite says to Naomi: “Your people is my people, and your God is my God.” That is, first your people with its traditions, with its way of life and understanding, with its unity, and only then your God – my God. That is, through your people I come to know your God. Yes, I come to know God, but through your people, applying all the experience of the people and keeping the unity of the people. This is an important value. Well, of course, not for everyone. And, apparently, the Sadducees held that it was precisely they who were the people of Israel. The Samaritans, understandably, considered themselves the genuine Israelites, and with the Karaites, it is clear what the dispute is about.

I have already spoken about the fact that there was a calendar in which the month of Nisan always began on Wednesday, on the day on which the sun was created, and there everything was simpler. There are also questions about this calendar. Where does the lunisolar calendar suddenly come from? How does it work? And is there not some influence here of the Romans, under which the Sadducees often found themselves? One cannot say with certainty that it is there, nor likewise say with certainty that it is not there.

Such a tangled story came out with the festival of Shavuot, such that even to this day the disputes around this festival – when to celebrate it – do not die down. And many among the people celebrate it separately from everyone: someone mastered something self-taught and accepted it that way, someone joined some community. In a word, the unity of the people suffers from this, and, in my view, the unity of the people is an important value. Well, I am not able to change anyone's faith or anyone's way of worshipping the Most High, and I am not sure that this is necessary. Therefore consider this simply a historical account.

So, count for yourself seven weeks. Try to imagine the feeling of a person who has begun the barley harvest, and he knows that in about seven weeks the wheat harvest will begin. All seven days he counts these days, although he knows, of course, what date it will be in forty-nine days, and one could sit down and calculate it right away. But the commandment is to count day by day, to count off blessed day after blessed day, in order to live through this very feeling from the barley harvest, the daily blessing which the LORD gives, and the expectation of the wheat crop, the readiness for the wheat harvest. Of course, this experience, which is accessible to a peasant farmer, is hard to live through in the city. And again one must become aware of this, one must somehow, for oneself, fill the festival of Shavuot with a similar feeling. Also not a simple task – to teach a person what to feel, what to experience in these fifty days, when there is no barley and no wheat is expected, since we buy both the one and the other in the store (and some even in stores that are far from the land of Israel, and produce not from the land of Israel). How then to count, with what thoughts then to count? This is a very complex, topical question.

That is, from all that your hand will want to give, as far as it is able to open up, your hand, from the willingness of your hand. And yes, let us again pay attention: we do not read here about the sacrifices that are obligatory on the festival of Shavuot, it is not about sacrifices. It is again about the festival and celebrating, about the fact that the people come not only formally, to bring a sacrifice, but also to rejoice in that with which the LORD has blessed you.

Why is you will rejoice not written in regard to Pesach, when you gather for Pesach and slaughter a lot of meat? Pesach is the remembrance of what the LORD did for you, from where He brought you out, and this too, of course, contains joy, but to a greater degree – hope. Believing that the Most High brought us out of Egypt, we hope that He will bless us in our everyday affairs, but this hope is not yet joy. We cannot rejoice that He brought us out of Egypt with the same degree of joy as we rejoice in the harvest, when you already see the harvest, see the real blessing. Here, during the festival of Shavuot (the festival of Weeks) and during the festival of Sukkot (of Booths), about which we will still speak, when you already see all the abundance with which the LORD has blessed you, here joy is fitting.

The LORD abundantly, plentifully blesses you, and you gather up gifts, and go to Jerusalem with your whole family to celebrate. And on the road you must take with you both your male slave, and your female slave, and the Levite, and the orphan, and the widow; take care of all of them exactly as the LORD takes care of you. You cannot rejoice alone: the stranger, and the orphan, and the widow also share the blessing which you have received, because the LORD blesses you for their sake.

And so that it would be easy for you to do this, so that you would understand that this is necessary, remember that you were in a similar situation. Even if you were not, it is written in your genetic code, it is written in your DNA.

From the festival of Shavuot we move on to the festival of Sukkot.

Again one could have expected that on such-and-such a date in the seventh month and that there will be such-and-such sacrifices, the whole list. And that there will be talk about the booths which must be set up, after all, this is the festival of Booths. But here Moshe does not say a word about sacrifices, not a word about booths. Why? Because it is not about that. This is a school of joy, a school in which Moshe teaches the people of Israel that one can be holy and rejoice in material things, rejoice in food. This can be done in holiness, and it can likewise be holy and joyful. Moreover, the Torah does not command to rejoice in potential, it does not say: “Rejoice on Pesach, even before anything has grown for you, or simply because you have lived to see Pesach.” This does not mean that one must be sad on Pesach. But a command to rejoice on credit, to rejoice in the hope that life will bring joy, is not here. This is also important.

And on Sukkot again, for the third time you go to Jerusalem, for the third time you take with you the male slave, the female slave, the orphan, the widow, the stranger, and all together you go to celebrate, not only you alone.

Seven days you celebrate, celebrate with your soul, with food, with drink, together with all your guests; from you – only joy. That is, in essence, the Most High says: “All the food at this table is Mine, and the joy is yours.” So that you would not think that you are really bringing something of your own there. In this joining of food and joy lies the image of a holy festival. It is not only about sacrifices; here there is not a word about sacrifices. Rejoice, celebrate, eat with all your soul and for the soul, for the service of the Most High. This is what this chapter teaches us.

That is, you come, you bring guests with you, you bring food with you for a common lavish feast at the holy place in Jerusalem, before the face of the LORD God. And this is holy, and this abundance is combined with holiness, this enjoyment is combined with holiness.

We spoke about the ability of the hand to relax and let go: as far as each person is able to relax his hand and release something from it. As much as you see God's blessing in your life, so much do you loosen your hand to bring a gift. And again, I repeat, it is not about sacrifices, it is about a feast, about a feast in which the whole people is united before the face of the LORD. About the skill of enjoying abundance, of seeing blessing in it, about the skill of accepting, of valuing material blessing and rejoicing in it before the face of the LORD. Not turning into an ascetic in the Holy Land, but making it so that your wealth in the Holy Land multiplies, that fertility multiplies, that the world gets better, and we get better together with it. And to rejoice, rejoice, and once more rejoice.

The weekly portion Re'e (11:26–16:17) contains many commandments connected with the fact that the people of Israel is entering the land. Moshe says: “When you enter the land, do not do as we do today – each one everything that is right in his eyes.” This expression can be understood in two ways.

On the one hand, one can say that today each of us does as is right in his eyes. On the other hand, one can think that do not do as we act today, but let each one do what is right in his eyes. Let us not do as we do today, but let each one do as is right in his eyes. And, accordingly, when there is the possibility of two understandings, the Jews have both.

On the one hand, one can say that, living in the land of Israel, the people must finally grow up and begin to submit to the Most High. In verse 5 of chapter 12 the Torah says that a sacrifice may not be offered in just any place, but only there where the Most High commands. But we know that both in the times of the prophet Shmuel, and in the times of the prophet Eliyahu, and in the times of the Judges, people built various high places (bamót) and offered sacrifices there. We see that the prophet Eliyahu too performed a sacrifice on Mount Carmel, and God accepted it. And only much later, in the reign of King Yoshiyahu, were these bamót destroyed, and sacrifice was transferred to the single Temple. And the question arises: what is bad about all these high places? Why does the Torah forbid them? Moreover, we see that the Most High sometimes accepts the sacrifice that is offered on them. The Torah says (and history shows us) that near every village there was its own height on which sacrifices were offered, and the people did not need to go far: each one chose a beautiful, good place and offered sacrifices there. And every time this led to the people beginning to fall into spiritual harlotry, because there was no single measure, no single standard, and the single image of the Maker was lost. Mixings with other peoples took place, the people went after other peoples who offered sacrifices nearby. This is the reason why the Most High says do not do, each one, as his eyes command.

Beginning to serve God, each one seeks some path in the right service of the Most High – as it appears to him. Why is the Most High against sacrifices being offered to Him on every hillock, on every hill? The Most High chose one single place for sacrifices, because he wants a single system, a single understanding. That is, it is not given to a person to decide independently, on his own, what is true, what is holy, what is not holy, which place suits him and which does not suit him. Therefore there is one place in which all gather. All can check one another, all offer the sacrifice in accordance with a single system.

But, on the other hand, there is also another understanding, a completely different one. It says that today, while we were walking through the desert, we could not do each one as he wants, each one as is good in his eyes. The food was one for all, and ultimately the whole people was on one such long march. The people was on a march, and this somehow restricted the people: it was impossible to do many things on this march. Now, when Israel has entered the Holy Land, it is freed from these restrictions of the march. And therefore each one can live by his own mind, by his own understanding, being free from the influence and pressure that others exert on him. This is also liberation from the past. A person who suffers from drug addiction or alcoholism cannot do what is good in his eyes. Entering the Holy Land is his liberation. But next to him there may turn up his former friends, who will say: “Come on, let's have a drink, come on, let's shoot up.” It is very hard to refuse them. And the person may again begin to look back at those close to him, at his friends, and again fall into these very restrictions. The Jews had restrictions of the same kind on the march through Sinai. And the Most High says: “I give you freedom, you are free to seek service of Me yourself, without looking back at others.”

These are the two understandings this verse has, this fragment.

With this one more fragment can be linked, the one with which, in fact, our weekly portion begins. These are verses 26–28 of chapter 11: “I am placing before you today a blessing and a curse. The blessing, that you heed the commandments of the LORD, your God, which I command you today; and the curse, if you will not heed the commandments of the LORD, your God, and turn aside from the way which I command you today…” Here there is a small subtlety in the language of the Torah. The Torah says: a blessing when you listen to the commandments of God, and a curse – if you do not listen. That is, the blessing is given without any conditions. The blessing is given so that a person can listen to the Torah. And more than that, one can understand that the very hearing of the Torah is already a blessing. It turns out that immediately, at the moment the words of the Torah sounded, a person already receives a blessing.

When the first Temple was destroyed, the prophet Yirmeyahu composed the book of Eicha (Lamentations of Yirmeyahu). In verse 38 of chapter 3 it is written: “Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that calamities (raót) and good (tov) come forth?” (or is it from the mouth of the Most High or only from the mouth of the Most High, it can be understood in different ways). And the commentators ask: “Why is good mentioned in the singular, and evil – in the plural? And they answer this question like this: the good is given to a person as the possibility to do good deeds at all. The very quality of virtue which is given to a person, the quality of hearing Scripture – this is the good. It is one, but it has many fruits. Every good deed of a person is a fruit of that very good. That is, the good is the cause, and good deeds are the effect. And with calamities it happens the other way around. Each of our evil deeds draws calamities after it. That is, evil deeds – the cause, calamities – this is the effect. And since there can be many evil deeds, the calamities too are named in the plural. That is, from the moment a person heard the Torah, the very hearing of the Torah is the blessing, the good, and there is no need to wait for some reward for listening to the Torah or for good deeds, because the hearing itself is the reward, the good deeds themselves are the recompense. This freedom to do good deeds is that blessing which has been given to us.

There is one more important point, a little irrational. The Torah says: when a person sets a slave free, he must give him both from his livestock and from his wine. That is, he must bless him abundantly in everything. It turns out that a person not only sets a slave free (that is already a loss, after all), but also pays him extra. And the Torah explains the reason: remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and your God freed you. And besides this, God so disposed the hearts of the Egyptians that they gave clothes, and jewelry, and gold. The Most High made it so that the Egyptians not only let the people go, but also gave them gifts. This is an action of God.

And in our case the Most High says that in the hearts of the Jews the same work will be taking place, will be carried out, and asks, urges the Jews not to hinder this work of the spirit. When there is the grace not only to set a slave free, but also to pay him; when there is the grace to show, for example, irrational generosity regarding payment for work, then perhaps this is the work of that very spirit in a person, that very blessing about which we are speaking. Probably so.

You and I will reread two verses from our weekly portion Re'e (15:7–8) of the book of Devarim: “If there will be among you (vechá) a needy one (evyon), someone from your brothers, in one of your gates, in your land, which the LORD, your God, is giving you, then do not harden your heart and do not clench your hand before your needy brother, but open your hand to him and lend to him according to the measure of his need, in what he will be in need of.”

First of all, let us pay attention to how many times among you, your, to you and so on is repeated. So, what is the Torah speaking about here? There will be a needy one among you, literally – in you (vechá). That is, inside you, inside the people there are needy ones, and they are not somewhere out there, they are here. It is not even they, it is we. The needy one – he is among us, he is part of us, he is first of all with me or, more precisely, as we said, he is in me. He is from my brothers, in one of my gates, in my land. And why, actually, is it mine? Because the LORD gave it to me. It is mine because the LORD, to whom the whole earth belongs and everything that is on it, gave it to me. And it was given to me, while the needy one somehow did not get something, or He appointed me to give it to him. And the LORD says to me: “Do not harden your heart and do not clench your hand before your needy brother.”

One can understand (this is also a correct reading) that first my heart hardens. I say to the needy one: “Listen, you have to work. Look, you have arms and legs – go and work, why did you come to me to ask for money?” A hardened heart clenches the hand.

On this subject there is a frightening midrash, a frightening story. A needy one comes to you and says: “Give me,” and you say: “Look at your hands, at your legs, look at your belly, look at your neck,” or: “How strong you are!” or: “Look how much you've eaten – you're so plump, so well-fed, and you ask me for food?” Such variants, there can be some other variants too. And the LORD says to you at that moment: “Not only do you not give him from what belongs to you, you also reproach him for what I gave him from My own.” This is very frightening. And therefore yes, of course, one must help a person get settled, fit into society, return to society. But, actually, this is exactly what it is about here: a person who needs something that will help him return to society, to be a normal person, to have the possibility to earn money and live like everyone.

The word evyon, which the Torah uses here, we translate as needy, literally – feeling longing, suffering, wanting something, yearning for something. He lacks something in order to get back on his feet, in order to build himself, to feel himself a normal person, and therefore to reproach him in this way is foolish, and one needs to help him.

But there are situations when there is not this sequence: a clenched heart – a clenched hand. It happens that we are ready to help a person, our heart is open, but in our hand there is nothing, we simply cannot give the person anything materially. In such a case we can somehow support him spiritually, encourage him, and sometimes this is also very important. And it happens that we are ready to give a person some coin, just so that he does not bother us, so that he is not an eyesore, so that he leaves us alone. And then our hand is open, but our heart does not open.

And the Torah says: “In order to fulfill this commandment righteously, in order for the people to have a blessing, each one of the people must open both the heart and the hand.” This is also very important – to give a person what he needs, not some minimum, not to say: “Well, if you're hungry, then eat bread and salt. And I also gave you a boiled egg, so you are a thousand times blessed.” This is very hard to accept for those who are not used to it, but Jewish tradition says that one must help a person return to the level from which he fell. If he was used to something special, then one must help him in this special thing.

In the Talmud, in tractate Ktubot, such a story is told. A poor man came to ask alms of Rava (Rava bar Yosef bar Chama). And Rava asks: “And what are you used to eating at all, what was your food when you led a normal way of life?” To which he answered: “I am used to eating a fattened chicken and old wine.” And Rava asked: “And are you not afraid of being a burden to people? Are you not afraid that, when you now ask people for a fattened chicken and old wine, lay claim to a fattened chicken and old wine, are you not afraid that you will be a burden to people?” To this the poor man answered: “Do I then eat their food? I eat the food of the Creator.” Exactly as it is written in Tehillim: “All eyes hope in You, and You give food in his time”. To each one You give food in his time, that is, when he needs it. Why is it not written in their time? To teach that the Most High gives sustenance to each one, that the Most High has not opened a charity canteen in which, say, everyone is given borscht or everyone is given gruel. And this is wonderful. But the Most High takes care of the needy even more wonderfully. So, while they were talking, his own sister, whom he had not seen for thirteen years, came to Rava. And what did she bring with her? She brought with her treats for Rava: a fattened chicken and old wine. And Rava saw in this a sign, gave everything to this needy man and said: “You turned out to be right, go and eat this.” Of course, the question is more about the faith of the needy man than about Rava's service, but this is an interesting remark for our piggy bank: the understanding of what it means to give to each according to his need.

There is one more important detail. Here it speaks not even about alms, but about a loan. A loan is when we lend a person more than we give simply as alms. When we give a person alms – a shekel, ten shekels, five hundred rubles, a thousand rubles, a thousand dollars, fifty hryvnias, a hundred hryvnias (it does not matter what sum we give him) – we count on someone else giving to him later, or on setting aside something for him every month with God's help. When we give him a loan, we count on him getting going and being able to return this loan to us, that this loan will be for him a blessing for the development of his business, for the development of some enterprise, for him taking up something, settling somehow, ceasing to be in need, being able to give this money back to us, and this money will serve someone else as well.

In the book of Tehillim (37:21) it is said: “The wicked one borrows and does not repay, but the righteous one is gracious and gives.” What is this about? The wicked one borrows, and he borrows with the sincere intention to repay, after all he is not a swindler. He borrows and thinks: “I'll buy goods here, then resell them and return the money.” But something does not work out for him. Why? Because he is wicked. Because of some sins of his, because of some problems he has lost the blessing and will not be able to return this money. What is to be done here? The righteous one is gracious and gives. Then this turnover that comes to the wicked one increases not by virtue of that in which his blessing lies, but by virtue of the blessing of the righteous one who is gracious to him. And through this grace of the righteous one the path of the wicked one to repentance opens as well. Well, a wicked one – this is perhaps a wicked one not in a very terrible sense, this is some confused person who is not at a sufficient level and whose financial blessing is damaged. And our task is to help this person. He is not somewhere out there, these are not some “they,” he is our brother, he is part of our people.

And one more important facet of this verse: “There is in you one who is in need.” Perhaps someone among us has a stable financial situation, but every person has some need. Every person longs for something, misses something, is in need of something. Someone needs human love, someone needs understanding, someone needs warmth, someone longs for the possibility to rest, someone suffers from insomnia. Every person has some need, not necessarily a financial need. And therefore when we meet a person in need of money, we can say: “Well, we, thank God, are not in need of money.” Perhaps, but we have some other needs, and in general we know what need is, even if we were born, thank God, with a golden spoon in our mouth and never had a shortage of money. We know what it is to feel a lack of something, what it is to feel some longing. In you too there is some longing, you yourself long for something, you yourself are in need of something. That is, in something, somewhere you are a poor man, in something, somewhere you are a needy one. And therefore show care for that needy one who is from your brothers, for a needy one just like you, only in need of something in which it is perhaps even easier to help him than a person who lacks love, family warmth, human attention and so on. Such are the thoughts on the weekly portion Re'e.

Read also the portion Ekev, the talk about blessings and curses, the material about the Jewish holidays and the weekly portions of the Torah.