Re’eh: Seeing Is Believing
Dear friends,
I have been thinking about competition and winners, and I realized the garbage pail in my kitchen deserves a gold medal.
It has been around for years, is consistent, never complains, works hard, is reliable, only mildly smells, gets along well with garbage bags, and holds on to everything. Deserving of a gold medal, don’t you think?
I was about to start the awards ceremony, when free choice came up in this week’s Torah portion and stopped the show: “See here, I am placing before you today blessing and curse. Blessing if you follow the commandments . . . curse if you don’t.” In other words, no free choice = no reward and punishment. Sorry, can.
Free choice is one of mankind’s fundamental, essential qualities, unique among all of creation. Everything else runs on a kind of autopilot: life directed and played out based on their natures and traits.
Our unique capacity to choose makes reward and punishment possible. Without a conscious “me” doing the action, why reward or punish it? This also explains why people do bad stuff sometimes. Can’t exactly choose when there’s only one option. So, here’s to the bad.
But don’t choose it.
Zalman Nelson,
Responder for Ask the Rabbi @ Chabad.org
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