In an extreme world, there is no other choice

Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse. The blessing, that you will heed the commandments of the Lord your G-d, which I command you today; and the curse, if you will not heed the commandments of the Lord your G-d but turn away from the way I command you this day, to follow other gods, which you did not know. [Deuteronomy 11:26-28]

“Behold” is a strange word. To see means that we perceive something with our eyes. To look means we direct our eyes to something specific.

But the word behold appears to combine the two. The Cambridge Dictionary defines behold as “to see or look at someone or something.” The suggestion is that behold is not necessarily an action rather the result of one. Whether we intend to or not, we will behold the presence of a new element.

And that is the message of Moses to the Children of Israel in this week’s Torah portion Re’eh: You will confront blessings and curses in the Land of Israel, and you will have to choose. There is no abstain option. Both blessings and curses will reflect your behavior, specifically your observance of G-d’s commandments.

It’s simple: black or white.

Ovadiah Ben Jacob Sforno lived centuries before the authors of Cambridge. But the medieval Italian sage also terms “behold,” or in Hebrew “re-eh,” as a combination of looking and seeing. Re-eh denotes something new — a stark choice of two opposites. Compromise is not an option.

“Look and see that your affairs will not be mediocre as is the practice of the other nations.”

Moses stresses that Israel is unique. Other nations can survive for centuries with deep-seated corruption. Not the Jewish people: They have to choose between blessing and curse, right or wrong, love or hate. Blessing and curse are opposites. The blessing is the greatest of success and provides everything. The curse is the absence of good as well as the force of life.

Take idolatry. G-d appears to tolerate the practice among the nations. Israel is the exception. Our Torah portion stresses that all of the false gods erected in Israel must be “utterly” destroyed — whether in the mountains, valleys or under the loveliest of trees. As Rabbi Shimon Yitzhaki, or Rashi, put it: “Destroy and then destroy them again.”

Most of us might call this extreme. In life, the argument goes, there are rarely clear choices, rather the lesser of evils. This usually explains why people, and especially their leaders, are loathe to decide on a clear path or strategy. They would rather maintain all options even when most of them are demonstrably failures.

Sometimes there are exceptions. Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and Josef Stalin had virtually nothing in common. FDR despised the British prime minister. Churchill wanted to strangle Stalin and his communist cohorts. Stalin saw both Western leaders as duplicitous and pro-Nazi.

Miraculously, during World War II they agreed on one thing: Hitler and Germany must be destroyed. This was not as easy as it sounds. Both Churchill and Roosevelt were members of the aristocracy, which for decades maintained a strong affinity with Berlin. Some of their colleagues shared Hitler’s goal of a world without Jews and communists. The House of Windsor, formerly Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, was inexorably bound to their relatives in Germany, more than a few of whom eagerly served the fuhrer.

The Nazis didn’t make it any easier for the Allies. Since at least 1943, high-level Germans appealed to London and Washington for a separate peace and the destruction of the Bolsheviks. But Churchill and Roosevelt said no. There would be no negotiations and no compromise. Germany would be defeated, the Hitler regime destroyed, and the country occupied, divided and demilitarized. After two world wars, Germany would never be allowed to start yet another conflict.

In our personal lives, many of our choices are just as stark. Would we be willing to fight for our loved ones or would we agree to sacrifice some or even most of them for either gain or simply to avoid additional attacks? Would we protect all our children or set a pecking order of who is important and who is expendable? Would we fight to keep our home safe, or would we agree that our enemies enter part or most of the house?

Suddenly, black and white is not as extreme as it sounds.

King Solomon says in Ecclesiastes that everything G-d does has a purpose — and that includes curses. In the monarch’s words, “Everything He does is beautiful in its time.” G-d created 974 worlds and then destroyed them. They were not meant to last. The last world, however, pleased Him and remained.

G-d, says the Midrash, wanted Abraham to start the human race. But instead, He created Adam. The reason: If Adam fell, then Abraham would restore. G-d even created fools, although they were incapable of logic and were impossible to be around. Under the right circumstances, fools can be beautiful.

Even evil is beautiful in its time. Evil provides the righteous the opportunity to shine, to contrast the corruption, lies and greed with love of G-d and His Torah. At that point, evil retreats — its role terminated.

The blessings and curses, says the 10th Century sage Saadiah Gaon, are laid out in front of us. We can’t avoid seeing them and we can’t avoid a decision. We either follow our Creator or betray Him. We either embrace Him or we make excuses. It might be extreme, but in an extreme world there is no other choice.