Seeing the Blessing: D’var Torah, Parsha Re’eh

D’var Torah Parsha Re’eh 5783, Deuteronomy 11:26 – 16:17

To facilitate a blessing can be a blessing in itself. A major tool on the path to accomplishing that is putting your entire self into this holy endeavor. I dislike the terms “holy work” or “volunteer work,” because, if it is work, why do it? I find those terms oxymoronic. When I was a volunteer hospital and hospice chaplain, before transforming into professional chaplaincy, I replied to those who asked me about my “volunteer work,” with the reply, “it is my volunteer passion.” 

Putting your entire self into this is also in its modern incarnation as mindfulness or being in the moment. Shortly before this parsha, in Deuteronomy 6:4-9, the instruction to be in the moment is the Shema, to hear or listen deeply, with all our heart and with all our soul. This week, the opening word of the parsha, Re’eh, is translated as Behold, See, or See Emphatically, in the sense of empathizing for the other, the latter definition resonating more thoroughly with chaplains.

The parsha begins with an interesting use of the singular: “I set before you today A blessing and A curse,” not blessings and curses. The blessing is to heed the commandments and the curse is not to heed the commandments. Judaism does not add if the blessing or the curse is in this world or in a world to come, aspects of other faiths.

The lists that follow, of what to do and what not to do, were understandable for that time: what to eat and avoid eating, smashing monuments, and defiling our bodies. Some can be adapted to today. For example, not defiling your bodies now can relate to Judaism’s teaching discouraging tattoos. Where Deuteronomy 14:1 refers to not making baldness between the eyes as a sign of mourning for the dead from Canaanite practices, today we can look at it more as a caution against excessive mourning, however we choose to clinically describe it for specific circumstances.

Effective chaplaincy lives in the moment. A great chaplaincy educator taught me, “The face of pastoral care is the face in front of you.” It is extremely important to take what we are given. Hence, there is a verse in Parsha Re’eh that speaks directly to Chaplains in their journey in their mitzvah. It is in Deuteronomy 13:1, “Everything I command you that you shall be careful to do it. You shall neither add to it, nor subtract from it.” Beginning chaplain volunteers or aspiring professionals can be tempted to emphasize sympathy over empathy, to revert to a version of, “I know exactly how you feel,” or, worse yet, “let me tell you about …” We work with what we are given, nether adding nor subtracting, as we are taught in Deuteronomy 13:1.

Because of the passions we follow, professional chaplains are more often confronted by tragedies and less often celebrating joys. How can we cut through the fog? How can we seek the blessing in the moment?

For me, a guiding tool is a quote my colleague, Rabbi David Levin of Philadelphia uses at the end of his e-mails.

When I asked David his source, his reply was, “The quote I use as my ‘tag line’ I believe is mine. I’d like to think I was inspired by one of the sages or even Leonard Cohen. But it came to me as I was developing my understanding of my rabbinate, the power of chaplaincy and the power of human connection.” 

David’s “tag line” has enabled me to retain focus on seeing a blessing before me, even in the midst of a tragedy or, as is too often the case, praying that there will be a blessing to be visible from a tragedy in front of me. Rabbi David Levin closes his e-mails with:

“God’s miracle is not in the thunder and lightning but in people sheltering others from the storm.”