Rabbi Ackerman's Blog
08/14/2009 - Parashat Re`eh
Last night, my son Josh invited me to see the new Harry Potter film with him. I enjoyed the movie (and my son's company) very much and was especially intrigued by the interplay of Harry's personal journey with the often parallel path followed by the villain of the Potter series, Tom Riddle, aka Valdemort or the Dark Lord. In order to pursue a path of goodness, Harry needs to understand the ways of dark magic and evil that Riddle had traversed a generation prior. Good and evil are much less sharply distinct from one another than we might like.I don't know if it's a coincidence that we saw Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince on the eve of Shabbat Re'eh, but the confluence is intriguing. Re'eh begins with this declaration: "See, this day I set before you blessing and curse: blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I enjoin upon you this day; and curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn away from the path that I enjoin upon you this day and follow other gods, whom you have not experienced." These words, meant to be proclaimed from the tops of two facing mountains in the center of the land of Israel, clearly delineate blessing [b'rakha] from curse [k'lala]. It would be pretty difficult to confuse the one for the other.
And yet, in the real world, as well as in Harry Potter's fantastical fictional one, blessing and curse often come wrapped in the same package. Separating and clarifying them from one another is, in fact, the hard work of moral responsibility, the very task to which the Torah summons us over and over. Re'eh's dramatic opening, which serves to introduce the long legal code at Deuteronomy's heart, means to remind us that even when they look and sound alike, blessing and curse need to be distinguished from one another.
Maimonides placed these verses at the center of his understanding of repentance. For him, and I think for us too, Re'eh's sharp separation of curse from blessing, hints at and leads to Rambam's teshuva mantra: "the choice is yours." Despite temptation and challenge, Harry Potter repeatedly chooses blessing. Re'eh and the Rambam remind us that that's our job as well.
Shabbat Shalom.
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08/02/2010 - Palestine in 1912 (Most Recent)04/09/2010 ספירת העומר Omer Counting
03/27/2010 - Time Out From Pesah Cleaning Reading
01/23/2010 - Shavua Tov - A Prayer for Haiti
01/22/2010 - MLK Unity Service - Shabbat Bo
11/24/2009 - Parashat Vayetze & Thanksgiving
10/18/2009 - 30 Tishrei 5770 - Rosh Hodesh Heshvan
10/13/2009 - Rabbi Mordecai Waxman, a Tribute
09/28/2009 - Yom Kippur Sermon 5770
09/27/2009 - Kol Nidre Sermon 5770
09/21/2009 - Rosh Hashanah 2nd Day Sermon 5770
09/21/2009 - Rosh Hashanah First Day Sermon 5770
09/17/2009 - L`shana Tova Tikateivu v`Teihateimu
08/21/2009 - Rosh Hodesh Elul
08/18/2009 - The Torah of Trees
08/14/2009 - Parashat Re`eh (Current display)
08/05/2009 - Tu B`Av [The 15th of Av]
07/24/2009 - Shabbat Devarim-Hazon
07/17/2009 - Parashat Matot-Masei
07/10/2009 - Parashat Pinchas