Parashat Re'eh: Timeless Lessons on Choice, Joy, Parenting, and Responsibility

"See, I set before you today a blessing and a curse." With these words, Parashat Re'eh begins. It is another of the Torah's powerful reminders that each of us possesses free will, with the ability to choose between blessing and curse. Yet the commentators uncover an additional message hidden within this very verse.

The verse begins in the singular and immediately shifts to the plural. Why the change?

Every action of an individual affects the entire community. Each seemingly small decision carries consequences beyond ourselves. The Torah addresses each person individually while reminding us that we are inseparable from the collective. We readily recognize how a parent's choices shape a child's future, or how decisions about marriage, work, or where to live influence countless lives. But the Torah teaches that even our smaller daily choices have far-reaching effects on both ourselves and everyone around us.

Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu explains: "A person may perform a single mitzvah or commit a single transgression alone, yet that one act can tip the balance of the entire world toward good or toward the opposite. That is why the Torah begins in the singular, and continues in the plural, because one individual is capable of influencing the destiny of the entire world."

The Path to Joy

According to the World Health Organization, depression is expected to become the world's most common illness within the next fifteen years. Experts predict that more people will suffer from depression than from any other health condition. Faced with today's epidemic of sadness and emotional exhaustion, Parashat Re'eh offers a perspective worth considering.

I am not a mental health professional, and these ideas are certainly not a substitute for proper treatment. Yet a simple reading of today's Torah portion points toward an enduring path to genuine joy.

Throughout the Torah, the commentators note that joy is consistently described in the context of other people: "You shall rejoice before the Lord your God—you, your sons, your daughters, your servants..."

A few verses later the Torah adds: "You, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, the Levite within your gates... and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all your endeavors."

Joy is never portrayed as an isolated, private experience. It appears alongside family, servants, the Levite, and later the widow, the convert, and those in need. Joy emerges when we move beyond the narrow focus of "me" and enter the shared space of "us." It means stepping outside ourselves, giving rather than taking, opening our hearts to others, inviting them to our table, sharing what we have, and bringing happiness into their lives. In doing so, we often discover joy within ourselves.

This bustling picture of celebration described by the Torah reminds me a little of the final days of summer vacation, when families spend so much time together under one roof.

A Revolutionary Message

A remarkable phrase appears in today's Torah reading: "And to Him you shall cling."

How does one cling to God? Through mystical experiences? Through fire and shofar blasts?

Rashi offers a beautifully practical answer: "Cling to His ways. Perform acts of kindness, bury the dead, visit the sick, just as the Holy One, blessed be He, does."

The commentators explain that God performed kindness by clothing Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. He buried the dead by burying Moses. He visited the sick when He appeared to Abraham after his circumcision.

It is a profoundly revolutionary message, presented almost in passing. Do you want to become holy? Do you want to draw close to God? Treat people the way God treats them when they are in need.

Simple to understand. Challenging to live.

Our Greatest Teachers

The school year is not really beginning now. In many ways, it is ending.

The most significant year of learning has just taken place. Summer vacation is often children's greatest classroom. It is during these weeks that they learn what real life looks like. They watch how their parents speak, work, drive, treat other people, behave in parks, hotels, stores, and everywhere beyond the classroom.

True, the vacation is long, and our children have probably witnessed more of our impatience than we would like. Still, before we once again entrust them to their wonderful teachers, we must remember that the most influential relationship in a child's life is the one between parent and child.

Every year we celebrate outstanding educators, but the teachers who shape us most profoundly are our parents. Nearly every other relationship in life can end. Friendships may fade. Marriages can end in divorce. Contracts can be broken. But the bond between parent and child can never truly be erased. Even through disagreements, distance, and painful words, that connection remains.

It is such a powerful and fundamental bond that today's Torah portion uses it to describe our relationship with God: "You are children of the Lord your God."

Even when we become distant, lose our way, or forget our purpose, we remain His children.

Responsibilities Before Rights

Even on September 1, the Torah continues its work of education. It teaches us how to live, distinguishing between right and wrong. Today's portion discusses the laws of tithing. As the school year begins, the late Uri Elitzur offered a thought-provoking perspective that challenged some of our modern assumptions about education.

He wrote: "Three-year-olds attend preschool for only two hours at first, then until eleven the next day, so that they won't find five hours too difficult. First graders are given a play corner so that studying for four hours won't be overwhelming. And as the new school year begins, I dare to ask the most forbidden question: Why shouldn't it be difficult? What is so terrible about expecting effort? Who decided that the world would become a better place if children had more rights and fewer responsibilities?

A cadet in an officers' course is someone who works hard and sweats in order to become an officer. To inaugurate a new factory means gradually bringing it from inactivity to full production. Education likewise means gradually preparing a person to function fully in the real world.

If our educational system — both at home and at school — is built on making sure children are always happy and never challenged, then it is not truly an educational system. Adults work before they receive a paycheck. We cook before we eat. Responsibilities come before rights, not the other way around.

Good parents and good teachers are not those who remove every hardship from a child's path. Without authority, boundaries, and expectations, children do not become educated. Nor do they become truly happy or genuinely free.

May we all have a meaningful and successful new school year.