Ever since the yearly cycle of Torah readings was standardised towards the end of the Second Temple era, and the fixed calendar as calculated by Hillel II (Hillel ben Yehudah, Nasi or head of the Sanhedrin) was adopted in 4119 (359 C.E.), Parashat Re’eh has invariably been the final Shabbat in the month of Menachem-Av.
Therefore most years (like this year 5786) it is the Shabbat of Mevar’chin Chodesh Ellul (the Shabbat on which we announce the beginning of the month of Ellul, which begins on Friday). In slightly less than one-third of all years, Shabbat Parashat Re’eh falls on the 30th of Menachem-Av, making it the first day of Rosh Chodesh Ellul.
So this Shabbat we begin to prepare for Ellul, the month which in turn prepares us for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the Days of Judgment. So it is eminently appropriate that Parashat Re’eh opens with Moshe’s exhortation:
“רְאֵה - see! I give before you today blessing and curse. The blessing is that you will hear Hashem your G-d’s Mitzvot which I command you today. And the curse - if you will not hear Hashem your G-d’s Mitzvot, and you will turn away from the path which I command you today - is to go after other gods which you did not previously know" (Deuteronomy 11:26-28).
(This translation is markedly different from most; but it is more accurate than the more usual “The blessing if you obey…".)
Moshe introduces this section of his peroration by exhorting us, his listeners, to choose the blessing and to reject the curse. We have free-will - of course we do, otherwise there could be neither reward nor punishment - and Moshe pleads with us to use our free-will for the good. Choose the blessing, reject the curse.
Parashat Re’eh contains 55 mitzvot (17 positive and 38 negative), making it the third-most Mitzva-saturated Parashah in the Torah after Ki Teitzei (74 Mitzvot) and Emor (63 Mitzvot). Re’eh actually contains far more than 55 mitzvot, but since most of them are restatements of Mitzvot already given (all the Festivals at the end of the Parashah, for example), they are counted earlier in the Torah and not in Parashat Re’eh.
The Mitzvot are our connexion with the G-d Who gave them. Indeed the root of the word מִּצְוָה, Mitzvah, is צוה or צות, giving the word צֶוֶת, tzevet, meaning “group" or “crew" - people working together. The same root gives the word צִיֵת, tziyyet, meaning “to obey".
Obeying G-d’s Mitzvot creates our partnership with Him.
Most printed editions of the Torah contain a Masoretic note at the end of each Parashah, stating how many verses are in the Parashah, then giving a mnemonic - a word or short phrase with the gematria (numerical value) of that number.
Parashat Re’eh, says this Masoretic note, contains 126 verses, corresponding to the word פְּלִיאָֽה (wondrous):
פ = 80
ל = 30
י =10
א = 1
ה = 5.
Of all the words that the Mesorah could have used, why did it select פְּלִיאָֽה to represent Parashat Re’eh?
I suggest: -
The word פְּלִיאָֽה occurs only once in the Tanach:
פְּלִיאָֽה דַעַת מִמֶּנִּי נִשְׂגְּבָה לֹא־אוּכַל לָהּ:
“Such knowledge is too wondrous for me; so exalted that I cannot achieve it" (Psalms 139:6).
The entire 139th Psalm is a magnificent and inspiring pæan to G-d’s omnipotence, His ubiquity, and His infinite scrutiny of His creation. The Ibn Ezra (Rabbi Avraham Ibn Ezra, Spain, Morocco, England, Israel, and France, 1092-1167) introduces it:
“This Psalm is exceedingly important for understanding G-d’s ways, and there is no Psalm comparable to it throughout all the five Books of Psalms. And everyone should study this Psalm and its ideas according to his or her personal level of understanding of Hashem’s ways and the nature of the soul.
I posit that when the Masoretes chose the word פְּלִיאָֽה from Psalm 139 as the mnemonic for the number of verses in Parashat Re’eh, it was no idle happenstance. On this Shabbat, when we prepare for Ellul and thence for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, they deliberately draw our attention to this Psalm.
The Midrash Shocher Tov (Midrash Tehillim) cites Rabbi Yehudah’s opinion that Adam originally composed this Psalm; and we commemorate Adam’s creation on Rosh Hashanah.
Whenever any Rabbinic sources cite Rabbi Yehudah without specifying which Rabbi Yehudah (there were more than 130 Talmudic sages called Yehudah, more than half of whom carried the title רַבִּי), they always refer to Rabbi Yehudah bar Ila’iy (Menachot 18a), a 4th-generation (2nd century) Tanna.
Though Rabbi Yehudah was both son and disciple of his father Ila’iy (Menachot 18a), in his youth he also studied under Rabbi Tarfon in Lod (Megillah 20a) - Rabbi Tarfon who merited to worship in the Holy Temple in its latter days, and merited hearing the voice of the Kohen Gadol (High Priest) (Kiddushin 71a).
Though we don’t know very much about Rabbi Tarfon, Tosefta Chagigah (end of Chapter 3) suggests that he studied under Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai, whose disciples Rabbi Eliezer ben Horkenos (Eliezer the Great) and Rabbi Yehishua ben Chananiah were Rabbi Akiva’s principal teachers.
Rabbi Tarfon was either Rabbi Akiva’s Rabbi and teacher, or his friend and disciple (Ketuvot 84b).
Rabbi Yehudah bar Ila’iy eventually grew to be one of Rabbi Akiva’s greatest disciples (Yevamot 62b). Together with his friends and colleagues Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Yossi, Rabbi Shimon, and Rabbi Elazer ben Shamu’a, he received his Semicha (Rabbinic Ordination) from Rabbi Yehudah ben Bava (Sanhedrin 14a) - the same Rabbi Yehudah ben Bava who was a friend and colleague of Rabbi Akiva (Yevamot 122a).
Everything about Rabbi Yehudah bar Ila’iy - his friends, his teachers, his colleagues - leads back to Rabbi Akiva; the great Master who raised 24,000 disciples, and spiritually led the great revolt against Roman occupation and persecution.
Rabbi Yehudah bar Ila’iy was among the last Tanna’im, the generations of the spiritual greatness that ended when Rabbi Yehudah the Nasi (“Prince", meaning Head of the Sanhedrin) compiled the Mishnah into its written form in the year 200.
I suggest that it is through this lens that we have to understand his suggestion that Adam composed - or at least was the first to speak the words of - Psalm 139.
Both Rabbi Yehudah bar Ila’iy and Adam lived at a time of spiritual descent - Adam after the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, Rabbi Yehudah bar Ila’iy after the destruction of the Holy Temple.
Just as Adam’s task was to reconstruct the post-Eden world and to people it with his descendants, so Rabbi Yehudah bar Ila’iy’s task was to propagate the Torah of Rabbi Akiva - the yearning and the determination to restore Jewish national sovereign independence to Israel, to rebuild the Holy Temple, to bring the Redemption.
G-d’s complete mastery over His world seems incongruent with the disaster of the destruction of the Holy Temple and of Israel, impossible for us to comprehend: “Such knowledge is too wondrous for me; so exalted that I cannot achieve it".
It is maybe significant that though the word for “wondrous" is פְּלִיאָֽה, it is written פְּלִאיָה, with the letters alef and yud transposed - as though to make it too “wondrous", in the meaning of confusing, to read easily. Indeed G-d’s world is often confusing, hard to understand, seemingly jumbled up. פלאיה instead of פליאה.
But eventually G-d’s world and His intentions for His Creation are resolved:
This week’s Haftarah is the third of the שֶׁבַע דְּנֶחֱמָתָא - the seven Haftarot of Consolation for the seven final Shabbatot of the year, from the first Shabbat after the 9th of Av onwards. Like all seven Haftarot of Consolation, the Haftarah for Parashat Re’eh is one of Isaiah’s magnificent and inspiring prophecies:
“O impoverished, storm-tossed, uncomforted one! Behold - I will set your stones in beautiful colours, and lay your foundations with sapphires; I will make your windows of rubies and your gates of carbuncles, and all your border of precious stones" (Isaiah 54:11-12).
And the Prophet gives us a guarantee for our future:
“No weapon raised against you will triumph, and every tongue that shall accuse you in judgment you will condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of Hashem, and their righteousness is from Me, says Hashem" (v. 17).
As bewildering as the world can be, the Prophet assures us of our wonderful future. Our enemies, whether on the battlefields or in the international courtrooms, are destined to fail.
We are heading - swiftly, albeit bumpily - for this halcyon future. This is the promise of Parashat Re’eh with its 126 verses, corresponding to the word פְּלִיאָֽה, alluding to G-d’s control over His world as depicted so powerfully in Psalms 139.
And this is the promise of the Haftarah.
And this is the reality that is unfolding so clearly now before us.