This week’s parsha, Re’eh, opens with the words, “See, I give you today a blessing and a curse.”
We recognize that we have freedom of choice and G-d is admonishing us to choose properly.
Usually, however, when someone in a position of authority is laying out choices, s/he will do so by saying, “Listen.” Why does G-d choose – this point – to use the term “see” versus “hear” (as we find in the Shema, for example).
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This week my wife and I were privileged to welcome our newest addition to the family, a baby girl. Thank G-d, mother and daughter are well. We now have evened the score with 4 boys and 4 girls!
The joy of welcoming our daughter knows no bounds. We are thrilled beyond words. Hearing the baby’s first cry is so special – and in a way that is the first sign of life. But it is only after seeing her that the full picture really sets in.
Chassidic philosophy teaches that this is the fundamental difference between seeing and hearing. Sight validates, while hearing piques the curiosity.
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The Lubavitcher Rebbe thus explains our parsha along the same lines:
“See”—Moses is giving the children of Israel the power of sight—to perceive that the true nature of evil is nothing more than a transmutation and distortion of the divine good. When evil is thus seen, it can be transformed into the good that it essentially is.
Seeing allows one to take in the entire picture, even that which is otherwise not obvious.
May Almighty G-d grant all of us to see – in a revealed way – true goodness and blessings.