Parashat Re’eh

By Rabbi Kathleen de Magtige–Middleton
The Liberal Jewish Synagogue

Summary
Re’eh continues Moses’ speeches to the Israelites prior to their entering the Promised Land. Moses urges them to observe God’s commandments whence they have settled in the land and to destroy the existing holy sites of the local Canaanite people. He introduces the concept of one central sanctuary in a place designated by God which would be the only legitimate site on which sacrifices and worship would be allowed. He continues with some further instructions related to the occupation of the land; commandments regarding sacrifices, tithing, slaughtering and eating of meat (and regarding the meat of which animal is permitted and which are not) the sabbatical year, the treatment of Hebrew slaves and the observance of the Three Pilgrim festivals; Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkoth..

Commentary
The portion seems to contain a rather random collection of unrelated laws, but on closer scrutiny it becomes clear that they all concentrate on the reality of being settled in the Land of Israel. Central to this portion is the concept that God will choose a central place for worship as the only legitimate place for bringing sacrifices to God. It particularly emphasises the exclusivity of monotheism, and the exclusive and special relationship between God and Israel; the people could not just sacrifice and worship God in any odd place or manner, but only in one particular place, on times and in circumstances chosen by God. Even though traditional rabbinic Judaism seems to pretend this has always been the case, by for example claiming that other places of worship mentioned in the Torah (such as for example the mountain on which Abraham almost sacrificed Isaac) are in Jerusalem, it is in truth a concept in the Torah fairly peculiar to the book of Deuteronomy. Elsewhere in the Torah, and also in later books of the Tenach that take place after the conquest of the Land of Israel we find ample evidence that there were many different other holy sites which had also been used as holy sites by the indigenous inhabitants of the land. There is even later evidence that there were also rival sites outside of the Land of Israel, such as a fully working Temple in Elephantine (Egypt) during the Second Temple period. Nevertheless the Deuteronomic tradition prevailed throughout the rabbinic period to such an extent that after the destruction of the Second Temple the sacrificial cult officially stopped, and was not substituted by another Temple elsewhere.

For medieval philosopher Moses Maimonides the exclusivity of the sacrificial cult Temple, restricted to one particular place, to particular times and circumstances, and by the fact that they were highly prescribed and only brought by the Priests, was one of the proofs for his philosophy that the sacrificial cult though commanded by God, was merely a concession to the limited religious understanding of the Israelites. Because the Israelites were used to sacrifice as the only medium by which to worship God, God allowed them this form of worship, but only in a very restricted manner, because in fact God does not need sacrifices, rather it was the Israelites who needed the sacrifices to be able to worship God.

For us, Liberal Jews, reading any commandments regarding sacrifices and regarding the destruction of foreign holy sites make for distinctly uncomfortable reading, and we do well to remind ourselves continuously of the historical circumstances in which these texts are written. Nevertheless there are always lessons to be learned, even from these texts. Perhaps the lesson from Re’eh’s harsh exclusivist reading is the acceptance that even if there is so much worthwhile of the surrounding cultures in which we live and of which we partake, there are some ‘holy sites’ within our own lives which should remain exclusively Jewish, because it is that difference, that exclusivity – (which is of course open to all who would like to partake of it either as a ’Friend’ or a convert to Judaism) which allows us to maintain Judaism as the moral, religious even cultural framework of our lives. It is that exclusivity which makes us feel commanded and makes us answer the call do what we believe is God’s will: to repair this suffering world.