Parashat Re'eh

Dear Friends,

In this week's Parasha we learn that before us lay blessings and challenges..

Many times things do not go our way. We are challenged.

Often we do not have time to prepare everything we wanted for a Shabbath dinner or for our guests. We are challenged.

Sometimes we meet people that are different that do not fully understand our norms, culture and behaviour. In their innocence they might do or say something that is inapropriate to us. We are challenged.

Why does the first line of the portion of Re’eh begin with the word “see”?

Are blessings and curses visible?

Sometimes, they may appear to be obvious, but what seems to be a curse can turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

When we make chocolate chip cookies we put a bit of salt on top to extract the sweetness out of the cookies.. We want our lives to be full of sweetness, but sometimes the salt (challenges) eventually makes life sweeter.

That's what Re'eh is all about.

Yet, the Parasha also teaches us that human nature will lean us towards seeing and doing what is correct in our own eyes - “hayashar be-einav” (Devarim 12:8).

Many scientific experiments reveal that people often miss things that are right in front of their eyes, because they focus their attention on one thing and they totally miss something else that is even out of the ordinary.

These experiments strengthen a clear Thora's message – trust G-d’s eyes and His perspective, not our own perception.

May we be blessed with a Shabbath of Emuna.

SHABBAT SHALOM

GUT SHABBES

Qabalath Shabbath 20.00

Sachrith Shabbath 10.00