Learning to See Through the Eyes of Torah

 In this piece by our member Rabbi Paul Bloom, we are invited to consider the quality of sight, its relationship to hearing and our ability to choose, and its role in our spiritual development as Jews.

"See, I place before you today a blessing and a curse." (Devarim 11:26). Every day we recite the words of the Shema:

"Hear, O Israel..."

Listening is one of the Torah's central themes. Faith begins by hearing Hashem's word. Yet Parashat Re'eh opens differently. Not with Shema—hear. But with Re'eh—see. Why the sudden change? After all, at Har Sinai the Jewish people heard the voice of Hashem but saw no image. Judaism rejected the pagan notion that God could be represented by something visible. If Hashem cannot be seen, what exactly is Moshe asking us to look at? The Torah's answer is profound. Hashem Himself cannot be seen—but His presence can be recognized through the lives we choose to live.

Seeing a Life of Blessing

Moshe tells the nation:

"See, I place before you today a blessing and a curse."

Notice that he does not merely describe blessing and curse. He says they can be seen. A life dedicated to Torah leaves visible footprints. You can see it in a family that honors parents. You can see it in communities built upon kindness and charity. You can see it in justice that protects the weak. You can see it in marriages strengthened by commitment, in children raised with purpose, and in lives filled with meaning. The Torah is inviting us to observe the results.

Leadership Begins with Example

The Ba'al HaTurim offers a beautiful insight. Moshe is saying, in effect: "Look at me." The greatest leaders do not merely teach—they model. Gideon used exactly this approach before battling Midian. Vastly outnumbered, he instructed his soldiers:

"Watch me, and do what I do." (Shofetim 7:17)

Those four words define authentic Jewish leadership. Parents influence children more through their actions than their lectures. Teachers educate by personal example. Communities rise because individuals quietly live the values they hope others will embrace. The Torah reminds us that every Jew is someone's role model.

Moshe Knew Both Worlds

The Kli Yakar deepens this lesson. Many people assume that spiritual leaders dismiss wealth because they never experienced it. Moshe Rabbeinu could never be accused of that. He grew up in Pharaoh's palace, surrounded by unimaginable luxury and power. Later he ascended Mount Sinai and experienced unparalleled closeness to Hashem. He had lived both lives. His testimony carries enormous weight. He knew firsthand that material success alone cannot satisfy the human soul. Real blessing comes from purpose. From holiness. From serving something greater than ourselves.

As Kohelet concludes after exploring every worldly pleasure:

"The end of the matter, when all has been heard: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole purpose of man." (Kohelet 12:13)

The Freedom to Choose

The Rambam, in Hilchot Teshuvah (Chapter 5), identifies this opening verse as one of the Torah's clearest declarations of human free will. Hashem gives us the dignity of choice. This idea distinguished Judaism from many philosophies of the ancient world, and it remains revolutionary today. Modern society often explains human behavior through genetics, psychology, economics, or environment. Judaism recognizes the influence of these forces but insists they never eliminate personal responsibility. Every person possesses the ability to choose. Blessing is not imposed. Neither is curse. Hashem places both before us and lovingly says:

"Choose."

As Moshe later declares:

"I have placed before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life." (Devarim 30:19)

Seeing Eretz Yisrael

There is another remarkable dimension to Moshe's opening command. The Ramban teaches that dwelling in Eretz Yisrael is itself a mitzvah, one that enables the Jewish people to live the Torah in its fullest expression. This idea is reflected throughout Parashat Re'eh. No other parashah emphasizes so repeatedly "the place that Hashem will choose." Again and again the Torah directs our attention toward the future spiritual center of Jewish life—Yerushalayim. The parashah concludes with the mitzvah of Aliyah l'Regel, ascending to Jerusalem on the three pilgrimage festivals. There, the Jewish people would literally see holiness. They would see the Beit HaMikdash. The Kohanim performing the Avodah.The Menorah shining. They would hear the songs of the Levi'im. They would experience the Shechinah in a way unlike anywhere else on earth. The opening "Re'eh" reaches its fulfillment in Jerusalem.

Rav Hirsch: Seeing Beyond the Surface

Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch explains that Torah demands more than physical sight. It asks us to develop moral vision. Anyone can observe events. The Torah teaches us to recognize their meaning. Two people can witness the same history. One sees politics. The other sees Hashgachah. One sees coincidence. The other sees Divine Providence. The challenge of Re'eh is to cultivate eyes that perceive Hashem's hand within history.

A Message for Our Generation

Perhaps no generation since the destruction of the Second Temple has witnessed what ours has. After nearly two thousand years of exile, millions of Jews have returned home. The Hebrew language has been reborn. Jerusalem is once again the heart of Jewish life. The Land has flourished exactly as the prophets foretold. These are not merely historical events. They are invitations to see. To recognize Hashem's faithfulness unfolding before our eyes.

The Sifrei teaches that every generation must view the Torah as if it were given today. Moshe therefore says not only "See," but "See...today." Every day presents the same choice. Will we see the world through the lens of convenience—or through the lens of covenant? Will we pursue comfort alone—or purpose?

Will we recognize that the greatest blessing is not simply living well, but living a life connected to Hashem, His Torah, His people, and His Land? That is the enduring challenge of Parashat Re'eh.

May Hashem open our eyes to recognize His blessings, strengthen our commitment to His Torah, and enable us to witness the complete redemption, when all of Israel will once again ascend to Yerushalayim in joy and behold the beauty of His Presence restored in Zion.

Seeing is believing

 Here's a piece on Pirkei Avot by our member Jeremy Phillips on a thought that was sparked off by the current FIFA World Cup soccer tournament hosted this year on the far side of the Atlantic.

“Seeing is believing” is a mantra that has been repeated so often that many people, myself included, often forget to think about what it means. But recently I was jolted out of my intellectual somnolence on this point by a small and (in the great course of things) trivial occurrence.

One of my grandkids, aged 6, was watching a sports program that featured highlights of soccer games from the FIFA World Cup. The program showed some of the goals—not just once but a second time as action replays. This juvenile spectator, seeking to make sense of what he viewed, believed that each of what we know to be action replays was in reality an additional goal, though identical to the goal that preceded it.

At first I thought this was an amusing mistake based on an inadequate perception of what the child had seen. On further reflection I concluded that this inference—though fallacious—was not in itself illogical. After all, if we watch traffic lights go several times through their sequence of changes, we recognize that the second and subsequent changes are not “action replays” but separate, if identical, events. From this it seems that the value we derive from what we see with our eyes depends not only on what we see but what we know or infer when we see it.

This led me to ask: what does Pirkei Avot have to say about how we should see things? I was surprised by what I found.

My first port of call was the all-embracing baraita at Avot 6:6, which lists the 48 things that facilitate the acquisition of Torah. This baraita has something to say about what one hears, says, feels, understands and even thinks—but is silent concerning what one sees. Working my way back into the five chapters of mishnah, I gradually realized that sight, despite its significance in our daily lives, was a subject from which Avot appears to consciously distance itself.

While sight is a regular human faculty for which most of us are grateful, we are warned how dangerous it can be for us to use it. Thus at Avot 3:9 Rabbi Yaakov cautions that someone who breaks off from his learning to admire a beautiful tree or field is regarded as having forfeited his soul. Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar adds (Avot 4:23) that we should not seek to look at a person at the time of his degradation. Indeed, even when we do look at something, we should not accept the evidence of our eyes at face value: Rabbi Meir says as much in Avot 4:27 when he teaches:

אַל תִּסְתַּכֵּל בְּקַנְקַן, אֶלָּא בְּמַה שֶּׁיֶּשׁ בּוֹ, יֵשׁ קַנְקַן חָדָשׁ מָלֵא יָשָׁן, וְיָשָׁן שֶׁאֲפִילוּ חָדָשׁ אֵין בּוֹ

Don’t look at the vessel, but at what it contains. There are new vessels that are filled with old wine, and old vessels that don’t even contain new wine.

These negative teachings with regard to human sight stand in sharp contrast to Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi’s mishnah at Avot 2:1, when he references a higher form of vision:

הִסְתַּכֵּל בִּשְׁלֹשָׁה דְבָרִים, וְאֵין אַתָּה בָא לִידֵי עֲבֵרָה, דַּע מַה לְּמַֽעְלָה מִמָּךְ, עַֽיִן רוֹאָה וְאֹֽזֶן שׁוֹמַֽעַת, וְכָל מַעֲשֶֽׂיךָ בְּסֵֽפֶר נִכְתָּבִים

Contemplate three things, and you will not come to the grip of transgression. Know what is above you: a seeing eye, a listening ear, and all your deeds being inscribed in a book.

The message here is unambiguous. We cannot see this “seeing eye”. It is a quality possessed by God alone. This is the ability to perceive that lies above us and which lies normally well beyond our reach. It is metaphorically speaking, the eye of God and it is only this eye that truly comprehends what it views. When someone has this gift, having been touched by Ru’ach haKodesh (a spirit of holiness), we have a special word for that person. He is a ro’eh—literally a “seer”.

There is an allusion to the seer in Avot itself. Rabbi Shimon ben Netanel, when asked at Avot 2:13 to identify the ideal path to which a person should cling, answers הָרוֹאֶה אֶת הַנּוֹלָד (haro’eh et hanolad, “one who sees the outcome of that which has yet to emerge”). In other words, he is one who sees, or foresees, that which is not yet visible—something that falls within the capabilities of the seer.

Is seeing then to be relegated to playing a relatively insignificant role in our lives as practising Jews and in our relationships with God and man? Yes, according to Rabbi Dr Jonathan Sacks who has repeatedly and consistently argued that Judaism is fundamentally a religion of sound over sight. While the Greeks and other ancient civilizations viewed seeing as a form of knowledge, Judaism takes the contrary view. God cannot be seen, only heard, which is why the Shema, a declaration of faith based on listening, not seeing, provides us with the supreme means of linking us to God and to our fellows.