The meaning of the Hebrew name of today’s Sidra is: See. In the first sentence Moses tells the Israelites that he is giving to them the possibility to choose between the blessing and the curse. The syntax of this verse is striking. It begins by addressing one single person and continues by addressing the entire nation. The verb Re’eh is in the singular but the word Lifnechem is in the plural. According to one interpretation this is in order to emphasise to us a very important lesson. A person should not say: Who am I that I should choose to walk on the good path, all on my own, if everyone around me is doing the wrong thing and behaving badly. Therefore, the Torah warns us to do the right thing, without any concern about what others are doing, when we know that they are not following the right path. Moreover, a person might say to himself: How can I distinguish the good path from the evil path, when everything is apparently concealed from us? Therefore, the Torah says: The good path is right in front of you, LIFNECHEM. It is not concealed. Just look carefully in the history of our nation and you will realise what the right path is, which you should follow.
The blessing and the curse were represented by two mountains which the Israelites encountered on the Western bank of the Jordan, after they crossed the Jordan. These mountains were situated around the city of Nablus, which is called Sh’chem, in Hebrew. The mountain which represented the blessing was called GERIZIM and the mountain which represented the curse was called EIVAL. A number of commentators have suggested that these choices were determined by the natural conditions prevailing on these two mountains. The Mount of GERIZIM was fertile and green and the Mount of EIVAL was rocky and barren. In this way, they reminded the Israelites of the stark contrast between blessing and curse. It is interesting that Rabbi David Hoffman, one of the great rabbis who flourished in Germany in the 19th century, remarks that, during his life, travellers observed that both mountains were equally desolate. Therefore, he decided that the correct interpretation is the one offered by Nachmanides, that Gerizim was on the right of Nablus and Eival was on the left. The right side represents light and success whereas the left, on the North, symbolises destruction.
Chapter 12 contains, in the main, laws which were intended to distance the people from idolatrous worship and to emphasise the holiness of Israel. The Israelites were commanded to destroy all the places where the Canaanites worshipped their gods. In particular, the Torah mentions that the Canaanites used to build their altars and worship on high mountains and under fresh and moist trees. Trees were holy pagan societies. It is for this reason that it is still forbidden to plant any trees in the ancient part of the city of Jerusalem. When you go to the Western Wall you will not see any plants and trees.
There are several references in our Sidra to the fact that the Israelites had to offer up their sacrifices only in the place which God would later choose. At the time when Moses was delivering his speech, it was not yet known that Jerusalem would be chosen. It was chosen only during David’s reign. It was conquered well after the conquest of many parts of the country by Joshua. In fact, David conquered it from the Jebusites and he was the first to conceive of the idea of building a permanent Temple to replace the Tabernacle that had accompanied the Israelites for more than 400 hundreds years.
The reason why the Torah demanded the centralisation of worship, in only one single place, was because when individual families, or even villages and towns, offer up the sacrifices privately, it is easy for all kinds of corrupt practices to be introduced, without the knowledge of the authorities or the rest of the people. It was very important for the development of Monotheism for God to be worshipped only in one place. Synagogues and places of prayer began to develop and spread only later in Jewish history. By that time idolatry had been successfully uprooted. However, the prohibition to sacrifice anywhere but in the Temple remains in force. This is why when the Temple was destroyed in the year 70, the sacrifices had to be discontinued, despite their very great importance.
The short sentence in chapter 12 verse 4 says: “Do not do the same to the Lord your God”. This verse refers to the destruction of pagan locations of worship. By way of Midrash, our rabbis derived the concept that it is forbidden to destroy or delete any of God’s sacred names. This is the reason why we are very careful to collect old Siddurim or Chumashim in specially designated places and dispose of them in a respectful manner. The recommended method of disposal is to bury them. This prohibition includes many other religious documents which might contain God’s name, or explanations of the Torah. Theseold materials are called, in popular language, ‘Shamos’, which is the Ashkenazi pronunciation of the plural form of the Hebrew word Shem, meaning: name.
In chapter 12 verse 23, Moses again issues a stern warning not to eat blood. He introduces this command by the words: RAK CHAZAK, Be Extremely Strong. This introduction is unusual. Also, the prohibition against eating blood is repeated several times. Thirdly, the Torah demands that blood must be spilt on the ground and sometimes it must even be covered by sand. These severe demands are explained by the fact that the Egyptians and Canaanites were very enthusiastic about eating blood in the context of their idolatrous worship and they also used it for the purposes of witchcraft. Furthermore, the separation of the blood from the meat requires considerable effort. To this day, various non-kosher meat products, especially liver, contain a great deal of blood. We, on the other hand, take extraordinary care to eliminate all traces of blood. The idea behind this law is that blood contains the life force of the animal, and consuming it causes us to be cruel.
RAK CHAZAK. Today, we can apply this call for all our religious observances. We do need a great deal of spiritual strength and resolve to withstand the many temptations of modern life, which can so easily distract our attention from our sacred Torah and take us on a path, which is alien to our laws and traditions.