"MM- "CLEAR VISION!” Monday Motivation w/Rabbi Garfinkel 8-10-26

And what does Hashem tell the Jewish people to see? Re'eh, look, see.

Anokhi nosen lifneichem hayom.

I am placing in front of you today, bracha uklala.

Blessing and curse.

Now, this is referring, Rashi says, to the blessings of the Jewish people and curses that Jewish people will say when they would enter the land of Israel and they would divide the Jewish people up and on two mountains, Har Grizim and Har Eval.

Okay, and it's for another discussion at another time.

But the commentators point out something very interesting, that it doesn't speak in the grammar about a one-time seeing.

It says, I am placing in front of you today, present tense.

It doesn't say, I placed it in front of you.

It's I am placing in front of you.

And the commentators explain that this means that this placing of bracha and klala, of blessing and curse, is not only subject to the times of when the Jewish people would enter the land of Israel and proclaim the blessings of those people who would follow the Torah and the curses of those who did not.

But it's talking about for the rest of Jewish history.

That God places in front of us blessing and curse.

And it's upon us, it's incumbent upon us to choose.

And that choice exists 3,338 years ago up until this very day.

And the Torah continues.

What is this bracha? What is this bracha that you are going to have? That you're going to listen to the mitzvot, the commandments of Hashem, your God.

The blessing, folks.

is dialing in to the mitzvahs.

That's it.

We see Jewish history.

It's very clear.

Those Jews who have dialed into the mitzvahs are still here as Jews.

Those Jews who have not, we're not blaming anyone, we're just looking at stats, looking at historical trends.

Those people keep the Torah, their children keep the Torah, and they are still around, their descendants are still around, keeping the Torah, living a life of blessing.