Re’eh
Deuteronomy 11:26 - 16:17
Précis: Moses begins by quoting God, saying “Behold (re’eh), I set before you a blessing and a curse this day.” The blessing flows from observance of the laws; the curses result from violations. A concern with idolatry permeates the following verses. The parasha explains that there will be a single site for sacrifices. A test for a false prophet and the punishment of an idolatrous city are included. The parasha then shifts to other subjects: the prohibition against self-mutilation, the laws of kashrut, and tithing so that the Levite, the "stranger, the fatherless, and the widow” are taken care of. Remission of debts, freeing of Hebrew slaves, and the dedication of firstborn cattle are discussed, as are the commandments for the observance of Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot.
Deut.12:8 “You shall not act at all as we now act here, each of us as we please . . .”
A major focus of this parasha is the centrality of the Temple and the Pilgrimage Festivals, where it is assumed that the People will gather together in worship. The cited verse suggests that there would be a need for a transition from the movable Tabernacle to a fixed Temple in the Promised Land.
Not only would the place of worship be fixed, but the rituals associated with the sacrifices would be codified. Nachmanides opines that sacrifices made during the 40 years of the Wilderness experience were essentially unregulated, in contrast to the highly fixed requirements of the Temple sacrificial system.
And yet, despite the specific demand here, a single place for Jewish worship and a single method for of Jewish ritual never came to be. The Book of Judges, set prior to the establishment of the kingship in Israel, tells us about the years prior to the building of the Temple, “when every man did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 25:22). Even after King Solomon dedicated the first Temple in Jerusalem, the prophets repeatedly castigate the people for making sacrifices in “high places” and at other locations. Prior to the destruction of the second Temple in the first century C.E., Jewish religious practice was morphing into something different. We have archaeological evidence of the existence of synagogues during the Second Temple period in Israel and in other locations outside of the land, so we know that the Temple sacrificial system was not the only place (or means) of conducting Jewish ritual life.
Throughout the centuries, there has been continuing tension between individual and communal Jewish worship. Judaism is, of course, a quintessential communal faith, requiring a religious quorum for most significant worship ("minyan"). Today, we have an extraordinary wide range of Jewish practices and rituals, to the extent that it seems increasingly difficult (if not presumptive) to label any one form of Judaism “normative.” Even within the most traditional segments of the community, serious differences exist about how to live a “torah life.”
I would suggest that this verse teaches us that diversity in Jewish practice and ritual is perhaps the one “normative” aspect that transcends 3,000 years of belief.
