The Significance of Re'eh-visiting Old Lessons
A birthday d'var!
Shalom from the Holy Land! No, not that Holy Land… I’m writing from West Palm Beach! ☀️
Actually, it’s more like ☀️☀️🌧️⛈️☀️☀️👴🏻
I’m doing something rare in this Drop and writing a d’var (a word of Torah).
We’re nearing the end of the Torah, in Parsha Re'eh, when Moses recounts lessons from earlier to the Israelites as part of his final address before they enter the Promised Land.
This parsha seems awfully repetitive. After all, haven’t we been reading about these mitzvot in the last couple of Books? By now, the Israelites already know to observe the three big harvest festivals/holidays of Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot, and to not eat pig. Are we experiencing déjà vu this week?
True, Moses is preparing the Israelites to enter a new land by reinforcing these teachings, but why? Are Jews forgetful? Judging how memory plays such a significant role in our stories and tradition, I doubt that’s the reason. Were they not listening the first time? By this point in the Torah, you’d think the Israelites would take the word of G-d more seriously than they had been in previous parshiyot.
Perhaps Moses repeats these lessons because he understands it takes a few times for one to really stick, especially when facing a new challenge or a transition.
That’s not the same as forgetfulness, because you can know the right thing to do but choose not to do it anyway out of comfort or fear. It’s like every challenge we face in life is a test for the lessons we’ve learned along the way.
In a way, challenges are a blessing and a curse (yes, that's a parsha pun for my Torah enthusiasts).
Side note: even if you don’t keep kosher or don’t observe Shavuos, the point I’m making still applies! We all give ourselves rules or have values by which we try to live, from cutting yourself off after one drink at a party to dating someone Jewish.
So, why am I talking about lessons? This week, I turned the insignificant age of 31. Every birthday, I like to take stock of different areas of my life. Approaching the new territory of my 31st year, and in the spirit of Moses’s re’eh-petitiveness, I thought it would be fun to re’eh-flect on last year’s Drop, 20 lessons I learned in my 20s, and see (yes, that’s another pun - re’eh means see) how I did.
So… in my 30th year, did I really practice what I preach?
Never apologize unless you really have to. ➡️ I often say this lightheartedly, but I don’t always follow it. Just the other day, I caught myself typing out the word “Sorry” because I felt that I was making my birthday plans complicated. Old habits die hard!
Communicating what’s on your mind because it’s better to be vulnerable than guarded. ➡️ Ha. Someone, anyone… please let me know in the comments if you do this comfortably, confidently, and 100% of the time.
Remembering what my favorite visionary creative, Qveen Herby, said, that it’s a part of the human journey to feel yucky. ➡️ Well, I’ve been feeling yucky about a part of my body for a good portion of the year. I’m doing everything I can to “fix” it but I’d be lying if I said it hasn’t affected my self-image (which goes back to the first lesson I wrote down, that no one gives a shit about you because they’re too focused on themselves).
Ask for what you want even if you think the answer is no. ➡️ I’ve gotten better at this, but there’s still room for improvement.
Hey, at least I didn’t send a bad work email this year!
It’s human nature to be comfortable, to do things the way we’ve always done them even though we know we could improve. Moses’s re’eh-cap of G-d’s commandments, much like the re’eh-iteration of some of my favorite lessons, serves as a powerful re’eh-minder (that’s the last one, I promise) to hold ourselves to our own standards of living, and to not lose sight of who we truly are when we’re entering a new phase.
I may not be literally entering a new land this year (well, I will be traveling to Poland for the first time), but revisiting my old Guidebook for Life keeps me focused on the person I strive to be, even when I slip up (reminder: Yom Kippur begins on October 11th). Having said that, I should probably look at that list more than once a year…
Thank you for reading!
Shabbat Shalom. May we live by our lessons and values.
And re’eh-member (oops, I had to): always take the last cookie on the plate,
I love the way you plant yourself in the Torah! Pruning a bit here and there as you grow.
May your transformations be blossoms of insight.
when the Jews left the desert, they entered a new land but that land had occupants. What we learn is that people throughout history have moved into territories and uprooted others or absorbed them (as the Normans in going into England) and comingling of cultures. These days we hear a lot about Palestine and Israel and t land, but we need but look at the settlers in early America and the natives who were displaced . These days we also have the movements of refuges and also those who will be fleeing the chaos of climate change.