Debarim (Deuteronomy) 11:26-16:17
This week’s perashá is titled Re’eh (“see”).
Our teacher Moshe exhorts the people to consider the path before them: blessing or curse. This portion includes details about the kosher diet, offerings and gifts in the Temple, the sabbatical year, and idolatry. In this commentary we will focus on the theme of idolatry.
There is a branch of anthropology dedicated to the study of religion within an ethnic group or region. Something peculiar about studying world religions is that human beings have an innate desire to understand why they exist. Whether in Hinduism, Buddhism, animism, or the Abrahamic traditions, the believer tries to understand himself through what has been created, and thereby to understand the Creator. By considering nature and especially the stars, one asks: “Who am I, and how did all this come to be?” Upon deeper reflection, the more diligent person comes to understand that human nature is composed of both a physical and a metaphysical aspect. Then other questions arise, such as: “What will happen when I die? Where will I go?”
Every year, thousands of Jews visit India and other places searching for God. Yet the Torah says:
“If your own brother, or your son, or your daughter, or your beloved wife, or your closest friend, tries to entice you in secret, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods’—gods that neither you nor your fathers knew, gods of the peoples near or far, from one end of the earth to the other—you must not be deceived or listen to them.”
Beyond this, the Eternal commands that foreign religious artifacts be destroyed and forbids the study of alien rituals, lest one’s mind be led astray.
Paradoxically, the Torah requires the use of articles such as tefillin and ṣiṣit in order to help the Israelite cleave to the Blessed One, since the physical aspect dominates in man. According to Maimonides, this is the reason why we have so many material precepts, with the Temple service being the clearest example.
In every generation and region where our people live, “prophets” and “messiahs” arise. It has already been shown that man naturally seeks to understand Divinity through something greater than himself. For this reason, the Eternal, blessed be He, warns the people: “If a prophet or dreamer of dreams arises among you and announces a sign or wonder, and the sign or wonder comes to pass, and he says to you, ‘Let us go after other gods, which you have not known, and let us serve them,’ you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer.”
Today it has become popular to turn to a “saint” within Jewish philosophy, especially in Hasidic circles and Eastern communities. It is interesting to note that both share ideologies rooted in the Zohar and in the teachings of Isaac Luria. Many, in good faith, affirm that these teachings belong to the more spiritual realm of the Torah. They are carried away by so-called “kabbalists” and miracle-workers, who lead the unlearned away from the straight path.
This perashá teaches us clearly that we must not place intermediaries between ourselves and the Creator, blessed be He. This is the most subtle form of idolatry, born within our own circles. These Jewish “visionaries” and “magicians” transmit teachings with origins in Hinduism, Gnosticism, and Christianity in the name of mysticism, when in fact the Talmud states that there are only two mystical subjects in the Torah, namely Ma’aseh Bereshit and Ma’aseh Merkavah (Talmud B. Ḥagigah 19a). The Sages of the Law forbade these to be taught publicly, restricting their study to well-prepared scholars, so that no one could deceive or manipulate others by claiming to possess the “keys of the Universe.”
The Eternal says in this perashá that He sends these impostors to test us, to see if we truly love Him with all our heart and soul. By comparing passages, we can conclude that loving the Eternal means loving Him without the need of mediators.
Idolatry is very attractive to human beings because it is easy to worship an image. Beyond this kind of idolatry, there is the level where man creates a philosophical image of Divinity in the likeness of man. Consider, for example, the concept of the ten sefirot. Rambam explains in Dalalat al-Ḥa’irīn (Guide for the Perplexed) that the anthropomorphisms found in the Tanakh serve only as metaphors for reality, and it is a grave error to suppose that the Eternal, blessed be He, is limited to expressing Himself in that way.
Ḥakham Bahya ibn Paquda beautifully expounds in Ḥovot HaLevavot (Duties of the Heart) on the unity and uniqueness of the Creator, blessed be He. That which cannot be divided has neither beginning nor end. In other words, He is infinite. This is clearly seen in mathematics—infinite series. It is proven that there is only one reality in the universe that conforms to this principle. Twice a day, the Israelite proclaims it: “Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Eḥad.”
May it be the will of the Blessed One that we serve Him with a clear perception.