For those who have forgotten their biology A-Level, identical twins are called monozygotic twins whereas non identical twins are called dizygotic twins!
This week’s Parshah is called so after the opening word Re’ai – “see”. The actual phrase is somewhat problematic and reads, “See, I present before you today blessing and a curse”. How can spoken words be seen?
The verse continues, “Then you shall deliver the blessing on Mount Gerisim and the curse on Mount Eval”. This is what the Jews did upon entering the Land of Israel. The Levites who would be standing in between the two mountains were to turn their faces to Mount Gerisim and say the first Blessing. Then they would turn their faces towards Mount Eval and utter the curse. And so on and so forth for the remaining blessings and curses.
How are we to understand the necessity for these two mountains with regard to the blessings and curses?
R’ Shimshon Refoel Hirsch explains, “Gerisim and Ebal are two peaks of the Ephraim range of mountains which still show a striking contrast in their appearance. Gerisim to the south of the valley of Shechem presents a smiling green slope rising in fruit-covered terraces to its summit, Eval on the north side, steep, bare and bleak….. The two mountains lying next to each other form accordingly a most speaking instructive picture of blessing and curse. They both rise on one and same soil, both are watered by one and the same fall of rain and dew, the same air breathes over both of them, the same pollen wafts over both of them, yet Eval remains in barren bleakness while Gerisim is clad to its summit in embellishment of vegetation”.
We are supposed to see the mountains and learn from them – perhaps this is what the opening word of the Parshah means. See the message of the mountains. What then is the mountain’s message?
Continues Rav Hirsch, “In the same way, blessing and curse are not conditional on external circumstances but on our own inner receptivity for the one or the other, on our behaviour towards that which is to bring blessing. Crossing the Jordan and treading the soil of the Land of the Torah, the sight of these two mountains preaches to us the eternal sermon: – That we are placed between the alternative of blessing or curse, and by our own moral behaviour we have to decide for ourselves for a Gerisim or Ebal future”.
We mistakenly think that external factors would change our level of success. But the truth is that only from within does anything come. Only by working on our character traits can we change what comes our way from curse to blessing. With the correct training any potential curse can be seen and used as a blessing. In the eloquent words of Rav Hirsch in Parshas Lech-lecha, “The blessing is not the condition for, but the result of, building up earthly life in a godly manner. Such building up of life is not to require any stipulations”.
Rav Hirsch notes that when our forefather Avraham settles in the Land of Israel for the very first time and Hashem appears to him, He does so at the foot of these Dizygotic Mountains. Coincidence?
The path that Avraham trod as the first Jewish individual that the Nation was to re-tread many years later. Jewish History is Jewish destiny.
The place between the mountains is Shechem – a place known for its murderous inhabitants. But Avraham saw the mountains and understood the lesson. The external habitat may impede, but does not categorically breed any particularly type of person. The same soil can bear a prophet next to a murderer.
The palace of Pharaoh was where our great leader Moshe learnt in ‘cheder’, in fact he spent the first 80 years of his life away from any Jewish environment!
The Talmud tells what will happen when we meet the heavenly tribunal. For every claim we make to justify our actions, they will bring a person who had the same problems as us and overcame them – thus incriminating us. For example if we say we had temptations to deal with, Yosef will be brought forward. “Did we have such a temptation as Yosef did in Egypt with his masters wife?” Similarly the sage Hillel will condemn the paupers who claim they couldn’t spend time learning Torah because they were so poor and had to spend their entire time making ends meet. So too Moshe will answer back all the people who claim that their education, parents, or environment was the cause of their shortcomings.
As if to acknowledge full understanding of the point Avraham makes an altar – on Mount Eval! Similarly in the days of Joshua, the first national Altar was on Mount Eval! Not on the lush mountainside of Mount Gerisim because as Rav Hirsch so beautifully concludes, “The altar of G-d’s Torah can be erected on the most desolate soil”.
Good Shabbos, Yaakov
