Our weekly portion opens with the word “See" and concludes with the word “be seen." It opens with the verse, “See, I give before you today a blessing and a curse" (Deuteronomy 11:26), and concludes with the commandment of pilgrimage: “Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God in the place that He will choose... and none shall appear before the Lord empty-handed" (Deuteronomy 16:16). In this article, we will attempt to understand the connection between these two forms of seeing.
The word “See" itself raises several questions, some of which are addressed by the Ohr HaChaim. First, why does the Torah use the language of sight rather than hearing or knowledge, as in “Hear, O Israel"? The same question arises in Parshat Nitzavim: “See, I have set before you today life and good, and death and evil." Why the language of sight? Are blessing and curse, good and evil, things that can be seen with the eyes? Are they tangible and visual? We find the same expression in Parshat Beshalach: “See that the Lord has given you the Sabbath." Why does the Torah not say “Know" or “Hear"? Another question arises from the second word in the verse, “I". On the surface, it seems unnecessary, since the statement would be perfectly understandable without it.
Our Sages, however, said: “Hearing is not like seeing" (Mechilta; Talmud, Yevamot 65b). Each sense has its own strengths and limitations. When a person sees something with his own eyes, the impression and certainty created within him cannot be compared to something he merely heard from others. This is why witnesses testify only to what they themselves saw and not to what they heard, since hearsay testimony is invalid and inadmissible.
Yet there are different levels of seeing. Sometimes sight is fleeting and superficial, while the sense of hearing can involve a deeper and more internal process, requiring attentiveness, patience, and absorption, as in the words, “Hear, O Israel." On the other hand, even relatively superficial sight can lead to remembrance, as we find in the commandment of tzitzit: “You shall see it and remember all the commandments of the Lord." Sight can also awaken a person to listen and hear. Therefore, immediately after “See, I give before you today a blessing and a curse," the Torah says: “The blessing, if you will listen to the commandments of the Lord your God."
Before addressing the different levels of seeing, let us bring the words of the Netivot Shalom, who, following the Baal HaTurim, explains that the word “See" should be read together with the word “I" that immediately follows it: “See, I" - a hint and reference to the revelation at Mount Sinai and to the declaration, “I am the Lord your God," in the Ten Commandments.
As is well known, at the giving of the Torah, “all the people saw the sounds" - they saw what was normally heard. Our Sages in the Mechilta explained this as: “They saw what was heard and heard what was seen." At this exalted moment, the senses of sight and hearing became united. These were not ordinary sounds of the kind heard in the world, but sounds that could be seen, emanating from the Almighty.
This is also why, on Simchat Torah, we say: “You were shown to know that the Lord is God; there is none else besides Him." And for this reason the Torah warns: “Take heed for yourselves... lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen" - for they had seen the sounds.
The Ohr HaChaim similarly explains: “See" - the One who called out and said “I" in the Ten Commandments is the One who places before you blessing and curse. The union of the senses at the giving of the Torah symbolizes the elimination of the divide between sight, which represents the material and tangible world, and hearing, which represents divine speech. At that moment, spiritual reality became clear and tangible, just like an object perceived by the physical eye.
Yet another difficulty remains: Why does the verse use the singular form, “See," and then shift to the plural: “The blessing, if you will listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today"?
The Ohr HaChaim answers that “See" is stated in the singular because, with regard to the significance of this matter, everyone is equal - great and small alike - to know that God is the One who places blessing and curse before them.
The Tur, in his longer commentary, offers a similar explanation: The verse uses the singular as though God were speaking privately to each individual, even though that person is part of the larger community. Hence, the verse continues in the plural.
The Alshich adds that the singular form echoes the words, “I am the Lord your God," and for this reason the verse does not say “your God" in the plural. The Vilna Gaon explains that the singular form in “I am the Lord your God" reflects the fact that the entire nation was united - as one person with one heart.
The Kli Yakar adds a particularly beautiful insight into the singular form of “See" as a personal address to every individual, alongside “before you," which refers to the nation as a whole.The foundation of this idea is found in the words of our Sages (Kiddushin 40): “A person should always regard himself as though he were half guilty and half meritorious... if he performs one mitzvah, fortunate is he, for he has tipped himself and the entire world toward merit." From this point forward, everything depends on the individual. That is why the Torah addresses every person individually: “See" - see with the eye of your intellect that all your actions affect the entire community, “before you."
It is precisely in this parsha, which speaks of Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, that this idea is emphasized, because there all Israel became responsible for one another. By virtue of this mutual responsibility, the many can be held accountable for the wrongdoing of the individual.
Before turning to the different levels of seeing, let us recall the words of Sforno, who explains what kind of seeing a person is commanded to engage in. This special form of seeing is contained in the word “See": Look and observe God's conduct toward you. Your situation will not be merely average, as is customary among the other nations. For indeed, “I give before you today a blessing and a curse" - two extremes.
Blessing is success beyond what is merely sufficient, while curse is a deficiency that leaves a person with less than what is sufficient. Both are placed “before you" for you to attain according to the choice you make.
God offers only a blessing or curse, not the intermediate state experienced by the nations that are subject to the constellations and stars. This is what our Sages meant when they said (Megillah 16): “Israel are compared to dust, and Israel are compared to the stars - when they descend, they descend to the dust; when they rise, they rise to the stars."
When a person visits an optometrist for an eye examination, the optometrist knows how to diagnose the strength of the patient's vision and prescribe the appropriate glasses. So too, spiritual vision has several different levels. By distinguishing between them, we will arrive at the “seeing" that appears at the end of the parsha. One level is material sight - an awareness of physical reality. By virtue of this sight, a qualified witness can testify, and based upon it the principle is established: “A judge has only what his eyes see" (Bava Batra 131a).
Yet this form of sight contains a danger, as we say in the Shema: “You shall not stray after your heart and after your eyes," for, as Rashi explains, “the eye sees and the heart desires." Some people see only the material dimension, described by the expression “a people resembling a donkey."
The Midrash illustrates this through the verse, “He saw the place from afar." Abraham said to Isaac: “Do you see what I see?" He replied: “I see a beautiful and distinguished mountain, with a cloud attached to it." Abraham then asked the young men: “Do you see anything?" They answered: “We see nothing but wilderness." He said to them: “Stay here with the donkey" - a people resembling the donkey. Just as the donkey cannot see, so too you cannot see. “I and the lad will go there" - to the place that God was pointing out to me: “So shall your descendants be."
A higher level is “seeing with the heart," the kind possessed by Abraham and Isaac. Similarly, we find Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai addressing his students (Avot, Chapter 2): “Go out and see which is the good path to which a person should cleave." Rabbi Eliezer answered: “A good eye."
The “seeing" here is not physiological sight, but seeing through intellectual contemplation, through the power of thought and understanding - recognizing the proper path in the service of God. As King Solomon said in Ecclesiastes: “My heart saw much wisdom and knowledge," and as Jeremiah said: “The Lord of Hosts, who tests the righteous, sees the mind and the heart."
The students of Abraham are characterized by this same “good eye" (Avot, Chapter 5). This is not a matter of physical eyesight, but of a mental perspective: the ability to see the good in another person, to appreciate others, and to be satisfied with what one has. Conversely, personal interests can distort this “vision of the heart," as in the case of bribery, which blinds the eyes of the wise and prevents the intellect from seeing the truth as it really is.
To one who seeks to see the good, King David says in Psalms: “Who is the man who desires life, who loves days to see good?" One who desires life must learn to see the good in everything - to see the glass as half full and to recognize the miracles surrounding the people of Israel. And for that purpose: “Guard your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good" - and then there will be good! This is a public-service announcement for one who desires life: See good! “For the good-eyed person will be blessed" (Proverbs 22:9).
The Ralbag explains, “Guard your tongue from evil" to mean that one should not speak badly about other people; “and your lips from speaking deceit" means that one should not say one thing with his mouth while feeling another in his heart.
The Malbim explains that the ascetics among the nations separated themselves from the world because they despised life or the goodness of the world and chose lives of suffering. David, however, teaches the fear of God to the person who desires life, who loves days to see good, so that he can live a life of success and goodness. Fear of God does not demand that a person completely withdraw from society; it asks only that he “guard his tongue from evil."
A level above seeing with the heart is the vision of holiness and spiritual revelation - divine inspiration and prophecy. Here too there are different levels, such as an unclear mirror and a clear mirror. The former is accompanied by parables, riddles, and imagination, while the latter is the unique level of vision attained by Moses: “He beholds the likeness of the Lord." This is clear and direct vision, without parables and without intervening screens.
There was another special form of seeing in the past, and with God's help it will soon be restored to us: the “seeing" of pilgrimage, the “seeing the Divine Presence," which concludes our parsha:
“Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God in the place that He will choose... and none shall appear before the Lord empty-handed" (Deuteronomy 16:16). Our Sages in Tractate Chagigah (2a) expounded upon the unusual repetition in the Hebrew reading of the word yera'eh: “As he comes to see, so he comes to be seen."
The Talmud in Sukkah (51a) says: “Whoever has not seen the rejoicing of the water-drawing celebration has never seen rejoicing in his life." Seeing in the Temple was not merely a person's physical entrance. It was a mutual encounter. The vision experienced by the pilgrim was a level of spiritual experience in which a person felt that he was standing before the Divine Presence and receiving its radiance. For this reason, everyone was obligated in the commandment of appearing before God.
The parsha therefore opens with: “See, I give before you today a blessing and a curse." This is not physical sight, but seeing through intellectual contemplation - understanding God's will and observing His commandments with a whole heart. It is no coincidence that the Hebrew words for seeing and fear are composed of the same letters. Awe of God enables a person to move beyond material sight and ascend toward intellectual and spiritual vision.
The parsha concludes with the command that three times a year, every Jewish man should make the pilgrimage to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem: “And none shall appear before the Lord empty-handed."
Beyond the offering brought for the commandment of appearing, a person should stand before his Creator and ask himself: During the last “semester," between one festival and the next, did I fulfill my mission in this world, or did I arrive empty-handed? Does he know how to recalibrate the course of his life - and, just as he came to see, so too did he come to be seen?
May God grant that we merit to see and to be seen, eye to eye, when God returns to Zion!