Re`eh
What happens when we respond appropriately?
Reflection on parashat Re`eh by Zac Newman, Or Halev’s Program Director:
One customary way of exploring the parasha of the week is to take one verse and dive into it deeply. Another is to read the whole portion through, and then to see what is prominent for you from the whole. Overall, what does the parasha want you to hear this week?
One of the refrains which stands out to me in this week's parasha Re`eh is an emphasis on appropriateness of time and place. No fewer than six times through the portion do we find the qualification that what is to be done - whatever has just been described - should be done specifically in the place which Life chooses, and not at another time or place.
It is often said that practice is about responding appropriately to the moment. The story is told of the seeker who travels far and wide to find the teacher who'll give them the wisdom they seek. At the top of the mountain, they meet them finally, and ask for the secret wisdom at the heart of spiritual practice. What do I need to know? And the response, perhaps surprisingly or anti-climactically, is: respond appropriately!
Sometimes we want one rule that we can always follow, one simple thing that we can always implement reliably. But in many ways life is more complicated and diverse than that. Sometimes what's needed is to brighten, and sometimes to soften; sometimes to take up more space, sometimes to step back. Sometimes to be firm, and sometimes - as we read beautifully later in this week's parasha - what’s called for is patoach tiftach, to open, really to open your hands, to give support, not to harden your heart.
What happens when we respond appropriately? What happens when we meet life here, fresh, not with the response of the past or the response of the future, but as it is now? The last thing we read about in this week's parasha is Sukkot: "ve'samachta b'chagecha", and then you will rejoice. If we meet life as it is; if we respond to what's here with whatever attunement and care we can bring...then the click of the fitting response opens up the flow that is joy. "Ve'hayita ach sameach", then you'll be joyful indeed.