Thoughts on The Parsha
Parshas Re'eh
All You Need is One
By: Daniel Listhaus
רְאֵה אָנֹכִי נֹתֵן לִפְנֵיכֶם הַיּוֹם בְּרָכָה וּקְלָלָה
“See, I present before
you today a blessing and a curse.”
-Re'eh 11:26
When
reading the first passuk (verse) of this week’s parsha,
one may notice the inconsistent Hebrew grammar. The word “re’eh” (see)
is written in the singular form, yet the word “lifneichem” (before you)
is written in the plural form. Why does the Torah switch the form from singular
to plural mid-sentence?
The
Kli Yakar[1]
raises this question and explains the passuk with the following gemara.
The Gemara[2]
brings a Baraisa which states that a person should always perceive himself
as being half-guilty and half-meritorious. If he performs a mitzvah, his
is praiseworthy for having tipped the scale in his favor to the side of merit. If
he however commits a single aveirah (sin), woe to him, for he has tipped
his scale to the side of guilt.
This
first part of the Baraisa itself is a tremendous idea to think about and
an important perspective to have. A person should always view himself as
presently being precisely in the middle of the balance scale and think that his
next action will define him as being either a tzaddik (righteous person)
or a rasha (wicked person). In this way a person will lead a very
productive life constantly choosing the path of one more good deed in order to tip
the scale in his favor. Yet, the Baraisa does not stop here. The Baraisa
continues to quote Rebbe Eliezer who points out that the world as a
whole is also judged based on the deeds of the majority of the world’s population.
Therefore, one should always view himself as being half-guilty and half-meritorious
and the world as being exactly half guilty and half meritorious. It follows
that when a person does a mitzvah not only has he tipped his own scale
in his favor, but the world-scale as well. Unfortunately, the flip-side is true
too that when one transgresses and commits a single aveirah, the
perspective is that not only has he negatively tipped the scale for himself,
but is also considered to have tipped the world-scale to the side of destruction.
Based
on this Gemara, the Kli Yakar writes that this is why the passuk
chose the word re’eh and chose to put it in singular form before
switching to plural. The Torah is conveying that each person should change his perspective
and look within himself and the actions he chooses, for not only does it return
to each individual, but has an effect on the entire world as well.
This
gemara indeed speaks loud and clear to many of us who indeed feel like
we are in the middle and that as much as we try to do mitzvos and lead
lives according to halacha (Jewish law), that we are still far from
perfect and do plenty of aveiros whether purposely, accidentally, or out
of ignorance. However, the difficulty with this gemara is what about
those of us who know that we are more bad than good? For such a group one more mitzvah
will not tip the scale and although perhaps it may not be utterly
worthless, its value is probably not worth the effort. So why is the gemara telling
every person that because he is precisely in the middle, his doing one mitzvah
will not only tip the balance to him being a tzaddik, but will even
have such an effect for the world?
Interestingly,
a similar question crosses the mind of many on Election Day. Oftentimes we get
ourselves get caught up in what we could term as the “voter’s fallacy” – the perspective
that one vote does not make a difference so what is the point in voting. After
all, very few times in history was an election won by one vote, so is taking
your time to spend on line at a nasty voting center really worth the value of
your vote? This is a question that many ponder when Election Day rolls around
and people are trying to justify their not wanting to go to vote.
However the point seems valid. So why is it
that one vote maters and how could we understand why the gemara tries to
convince us that all we need is one mitzvah to tip the scale?
There
is a story told of a messenger who once came to a poor city and announced that
the king was coming to visit in one year’s time. Immediately the city council got
together and had a meeting to try to figure out what it would cost to put together
a nice welcoming ceremony for the king when he would arrive. They calculated
that they would be able to do some extra fundraising and use some of the money from
the city’s emergency stash, however there was no way that they would be able to
fit into their small budget wine to put out for the king’s arrival. After much
thought, one of the council members had an idea. They set up a massive empty barrel
in the center of town and ordered that each family in the city put in just one
cup of their wine. Surely after a year the huge barrel would fill up and they
would be prepared to welcome the king properly. Indeed, every day for that year
there was a line in the town square with people pouring their cup of wine
contribution into the barrel. Finally, the year came to an end and the day came
of the king’s arrival. The king came to the small city, and after a beautiful welcome
speech by the mayor, the king was given the honor of getting the first cup of
wine. They held the kings goblet up high and poured into it from the barrel. However,
to everyone’s shock and embarrassment, all that came out was pure clear water.
What
happened was that each person reasoned that his single cup of wine would not
make any difference in the massive barrel. It would not be adding anything. Therefore,
he might as well pour in a cup of water instead. Such a minute amount of water
in such a large barrel of wine would not dilute the wine at all. The perspective
each person had was that his single cup of wine does not make a difference. However,
they missed the big picture. By them acting as they did, they were individually
endorsing the perspective that one cup of water does not make a difference –
even if each and every person believes so for himself.
The
lesson of the Kli Yakar is to rescue us from such a mindset. We are
tasked with understanding that when we each “re’eh” – look at ourselves
and our actions we must look at them from the perspective of being “lifneichem” – in front of all of B’nei
Yisroel. One person’s single mitzvah is enough to tip a personal scale, the nation’s scale, and the world
scale to the side of merit and therefore everyone is responsible to have this
perspective.
We must realize that
at no point should we feel like it is too late with complete depression and despair.
Rather, at any point we have the ability to pick ourselves up and imagine
ourselves in the center of the balance scale with the belief that all we need
is one mitzvah to tip not only our own scale to the side of
merit, but the world scale as well. With this approach of looking within oneself
and seeing the two paths before him and choosing the life of beracha, one has the ability to grow one step at a time.
As the month of Elul approaches, this lesson from the gemara that the
Kli Yakar brings, is an important one to internalize. The
Yomim Noraim (Days of Awe, namely Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur) often seem too foreign to us to appreciate
or prepare for; and even basic teshuva
(repentance) is
so difficult to achieve when we look at the muck we have gotten ourselves into
and how helpless we feel getting out of it. However, if we enter the month of Elul with a personal imaginary scale with ourselves placed as perfectly
center on the balance scale and that all it takes is one mitzvah to tilt it in our favor, that small repeated decision could go a long
way.
May Hashem help us
individually and communally grow in Torah and mitzvos during this z’man so we could enter and experience the yomim noraim as a meritorious
nation.
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