Parshat Re'eh: Making Choices

A choice?

Rabbi Neil A. Tow©2011

Living in an Arab Spring world, I feel more than ever thankful that we have different types of choices we can make about our lives, about who represents us, in this country.

We live in a place where there are many choices open to us about how to use our time, what we buy and do not buy, the kind of life we want to make for ourselves.

And at the same time, I struggle with the idea of choice.  To have too much latitude to choose can sometimes be a curse instead of a blessing.  To stress that a wide array of choices is best can cause delay instead of advancement. 

From a spiritual point of view, the conflict between choice and varying levels of determination receives its best expression in the statement of Rabbi Akiva in the Mishnah, “Everything is foreseen, but freewill is granted.”

The question of choices and determination is the opening message of Parshat Re’eh.  “Take notice,”God says, “I put before you today blessing and curse.”  The blessing – if you follow God’s mitzvoth, the curse – if you do not.  The language of Devarim makes the issue black and white.  There appears here to be no gray area.

And we find ourselves asking difficult questions about choices today.  Many are questioning vaccinations for children and the processing of milk.  School districts ask questions about school uniforms versus free choice of what to wear.  The recession forces choices about our consumption and habits. 

Perhaps sometimes we’d prefer to receive specific advice and personal guidance through our struggles and questions.  Sometimes we might prefer to leave our options open and seek multiple opinions as we often do in our health care.

The voice of our tradition comes through as we contemplate our choices, or as we think about the limits we place on choices for ourselves or for others, or the limits that we experience – the decisions we are able to make even about limits are themselves choices!

What guides us in our lives is the litmus test of whether our choices reflect the best wisdom of our tradition as it is refracted through the teachings of the Torah, the later Rabbis, and the discussions and debates that we have within our community up through to today.

Often we find that when limits are placed that they actually open up new choices and opportunities we may not have previously thought to exist. 

And then there are the times like the weather situation we face this weekend, a situation determined for us by forces outside our own control.  We have the opportunity to make choices even when nature seems to rally against us.  After the major storm hit Glen Rock last year, we formed an Emergency Preparedness group and we’re now mobilized and ready, in the event it is safe, to turn our synagogue into a temporary shelter during the storm.

My prayer is that we will weather the storm with minimal damage and inconvenience, and that in the wake of the storms, that we will feel a renewed sense of opportunity to make choices in our lives that will continue to bring meaning, holiness, and beauty.