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    What is the blessing? – Re’eh

    blessings signThe sidra opens with God promising us a blessing if we obey His commands.

    Our first thought is that “blessing” means becoming rich, enjoying the pleasures of material prosperity, living a luxurious life surrounded by servants and banquets, possessing property, power and plenty.

    That is one way of looking at it, and if that’s how your life pans out, good luck to you – please enjoy your money, mansions and possessions, and whilst enjoying them remember to think of others at all times and be generous to them in appreciation of what you yourself possess.

    However, I suspect that is not what the verse really means at all. It thinks of visions and values, not chariots and cheques.

    The greatest blessing is not material at all. It is to have a dream to pursue, a vision to implement, values to work for, spiritual realms to inhabit, ideas to savour, ideals to cherish, aspirations to exhilarate and inspire you, a better world to create, a heaven to bring down to earth, an earth to bring up to heaven.

    That’s the real blessing that the Almighty is offering His earthly creatures, and what makes it all the more valuable is when you harness it to bring blessing to others.

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