Making sense of the sedra: Re’eh

This week’s parsha continues Moses’ parting speech to Bnei Yisrael as they prepare to enter the land of Israel. Moshe sets the stage by presenting the choices that lie before them, emphasising the importance of creating a unified and just society:

“See, this day I set before you a blessing and curse. Blessing, if you obey the commandments of your God that I enjoin upon you this day; and curse, if you do not obey the commandments of your God, but turn away from the path that I enjoin upon you this day and follow other gods, whom you have not experienced.”

Moses goes on to detail the actions they must take upon entering Israel and the community they are meant to establish together.

The Rambam in Sefer Hamitzvot explains that it’s not good enough to say ‘I won’t sin and it doesn’t matter if my neighbour sins’. In a Jewish society, we’re all responsible for one another. The Gemara in Messechet Shabbat expands on this idea, stating that if someone can prevent sin in their household, town, or even the world, and fails to do so, they share in the responsibility for the sins they could have prevented. Rabbi Sacks further adds that while human courts can only punish those who commit wrongs, God holds to account even those bystanders who allow preventable evil to occur.

A powerful example of this collective responsibility and strength in unity comes from Sapir Cohen, one of the hostages captured on October 7. Whilst in captivity, her Hamas captors invited her to watch the news with them. They saw images from Hostage Square, where Jews of all denominations – religious, Charedi, irreligious, and Modern Orthodox – gathered together, meeting the families of the hostages and praying for their return. One of the terrorists remarked: “Right now, you are united, every kind of Jew is as one. We know that now you are at your strongest and we have to lay low. But, we just have to wait a few weeks or months, and that is when you will be divided and weak again, and that is when we will attack you.”

This stark observation reminds us that our strength lies in our unity. When we are divided and fragmented, that is when our enemies strike. When we are united, we are undefeatable.

In this week’s parsha, the entire Jewish people stood together to embrace the blessing, not just for themselves individually but for the whole community. When we work together to build a good society – caring for and supporting each other -we achieve our greatest strength. This is when we are truly undefeatable. We must strive to see beyond our differences and recognise that we are all Bnei Yisrael, children of Hashem, bound together in our shared destiny.