Minute Rice

Picture this. You are on a glorious hike with verdant hills behind you, a golden meadow in front of you. You look down and you see a piece of trash. Litter, gasp. So what do you see? Do you see careless teens that care not about the beauty of nature? Have you judged other groups of people, or perhaps children with parents who cannot adequately supervise them? Or perhaps what you see is a society with twisted capitalism that creates too many disposable materials. Or perhaps, you see nothing at all.

Maybe what you see is a G-d-given opportunity to make this world a more beautiful place by picking up the litter and throwing it away.

What we see is intrinsically connected to what we believe. Our beliefs greatly influence what we see. In this week's Torah portion, Re’eh, we are given the ultimate vision challenge. “See, I give to you this day a blessing and a curse. (Deut. 11:26)

Every situation is G-d-given, and we have a choice to make. This very choice is a gift that is granted to us by the Infinite Oneness of existence. This belief transforms our life; it transforms what we see, what we perceive, and thus it shifts our purpose. I

As the verse continues, “The blessing, if you obey the commandments of the L-rd your G-d, which I command you this day. The curse, if you will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which you have not known.” (Deut. 11:27-28)

The sacred Mitzvot are a pathway to understand that everything, every situation in life is intrinsically connected to my purpose.  Our belief compels us to see every situation as an opportunity to improve myself, or to improve the situation. Through the Mitzvah path, we are granted the ability to weave our life into the Oneness of All.

Or, we can turn to the other gods. What other gods mean is that we shift the responsibility to a different entity. We do not take any personal responsibility, there's nothing here that is connected to me, “the gods have willed it.” It is the ultimate form of removing any responsibility, accountability, and thus purpose from our own life. “Other gods” are the source of division, discord, and strife.

The choice that we are granted is a profound gift. Through these verses of the Torah, we are empowered to see the potential blessing in life, and to draw this Light into the reality of the world.

Blesssing and curse in all that we see

Sometimes, a fabricated story can sway more minds than the truth. We are moved by a good story. You can speak to your friend, an intelligent person, and they wholeheartedly believe the story being told by known liars and manipulators! Anti-Semites used to have to think about what story to concoct in order for it to be credible and to gain traction. Today, they have perfected the formula, simply take the horrific and inhumane acts committed by themselves and apply it to the Jews. The world eats it up.

I was horrified by what occurred on October 7th. However, it was not surprising, since I had read the Hamas Charter and was well aware of their intentions. But what happened on October 8^th astonished me entirely, that after such a heinous act, thousands of students would start marching in support of Hamas. This, I could not believe.

The illogical history of Antisemitism has a particular clue that might give us some insight and hope. The Torah tells the story of one of the first antisemites, Pharaoh. If you read the story in Exodus, he seems entirely unreasonable.  Plague after bloody plague, he maintains his position. But even before Moses goes on his journey to redeem the Jewish People, G-d tells him: “When you go to return to Egypt, see that you do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in your hand; but I will harden his heart, so that he shall not let the people go.”

Pharaoh's illogical and unbelievable position was rooted in something much deeper. G-d had a glorious plan of salvation. And the precursor to that salvation was this illogical antisemitism that seemed to be a disservice not just to the Jewish people, but even to Pharaoh and his country.

The absurd narrative is simply a setup for amazing things to come. Right now, it is hard to stomach. But we know the end of the story: “May they who dwell isolated in a woodland surrounded by farmland, graze Bashan and Gilead as in olden days. I will show him great wonders as in the days when you went out from the land of Egypt.” (Micha 7:14-15)

Is there a Mitzvah to take care of your health?  You can research it, do a deep dive in Halachic material, contact a rabbinic expert, or you can do what I did! Just Google it. And this is the answer provided: “Yes, taking care of one's health is considered a mitzvah (commandment) in Judaism. This is based on the verse in Deuteronomy 4:9, "And you shall guard yourselves (your souls) very carefully," which Jewish tradition interprets as a directive to protect both body and soul.” (See Tamud Brachot 32b)

It seems pretty straight forward until you look at the context of the verse. The verses are recounting the Divine revelation of G-d to the Jewish People at Sinai. “The day you stood before Hashem, your God, at Choreiv, when Hashem said to me, ‘‘Assemble for Me the people, and I will let them hear My statements, … Hashem addressed you from within the fire; you heard the sound of speech, seeing no image, solely sound. He told you His covenant, which He commanded you to fulfill—the ten statements—and He wrote them on two tablets of stone…And you shall guard yourselves (your souls) very carefully for you did not see any image on the day Adonoy addressed you at Choreiv from within the fire. Lest you destructively make for yourselves a statue in the image of any form. (Deut. 4:12-17)

The phrase is clearly telling us that we must avoid the human tendency to take something abstract (G-d) and turn it into something concrete (an idol). How does this have anything to do with taking care of our health? Could Jewish law be in error? Even worse, is Google wrong?

Let’s take a deep look into the story and uncover something remarkable about yourself. The Torah is telling us that we heard G-d, we did not see Him. Furthermore, something must be “guarded within our soul”. Perhaps what the Torah is emphatically stating here is that the Divine Revelation does become manifest into something physical. G-d becomes expressed within our very soul. Thus, our body becomes the vehicle for the Divine. “Your souls shall be guarded very carefully,” to maintain the Shechinah that resides within. 3,300 years later we have the Holy opportunity to live our life in a way so that Hashem’s presence is revealed within us. Creating an icon or image would diminish our unique distinction and purpose.

And since our body is the container for this sacred reality, we must take care of our health, for our sake, and for G-d's sake.