Is it Door No. 1, Door No. 2 or Door No. 3?

Marilyn vos Savant, born Marilyn Mach, was a super genius who wrote for a weekly American magazine that reached more than 50 million people every Sunday. In 1990, she received a letter from Craig Whitaker in her “Ask Marilyn” column that became known as the “Monty Hall problem,” named after a television game show host in the 1960s and 1970s.

Whitaker imagined that he was on Hall’s program and asked to choose one of three closed doors. One of the doors contained an automobile. The other two harbored goats, not something you feel like taking home to the wife. In his letter, Whitaker picked Door No. 1 but the game show host didn’t open that door, rather No. 3 where a goat was seen happily chewing its cud. Then, the host asked would the contestant rather switch his choice to Door No. 2?

Vos Savant, arguing that the chances of winning the car could be doubled, replied that the contestant should revise his choice. The following week some 10,000 letters poured in, including 1,000 readers with university doctorates, and insisted that the columnist, with the highest recorded IQ in history, was wrong. She wasn’t.

Moses was not Monty Hall. In this week’s Torah portion Re’eh, there are no closed doors. Indeed, there is no room for error.

“See, I am setting before you today blessing and curse.” [Deuteronomy 11:26]

What exactly is a blessing? The dictionary contains numerous definitions, most of them irrelevant to Re’eh. Onkelos, the Second Century Roman convert, sees the divine blessing as an enabler to serve G-d. Think of it as nitrous oxide, meant to boost car engine performance.

“The blessing will be intended to motivate you to heed the commandments of G-d, your G-d, that I am commanding you today.” [Deuteronomy 11:27]

The Torah is more specific when it comes to the curse. The curse will appear when the Jew will “not heed the commandments of G-d, your G-d, but turn away from the path that I am commanding you today by following other peoples’ deities, whom you did not know.” [Deuteronomy 11:28]

The distinction is instructive. If the entire idea of creation is to serve G-d then the divine blessing will do just that. Do you want to give charity but find nothing in your bit account? The blessing will take care of that. Do you want a family but can’t find a girl? Ditto.

At this point, the Torah does not specify either blessing or curse. Perhaps there is no need. Anybody can identify a blessed man and the same goes for somebody who is cursed. But, says Chaim Ibn Atar, known as the Or Hachayim, there is one bestowal that can fool the recipient. That would be a wicked man who steals from others, informs on his competitors to the authorities and plants armed guards to keep the needy away. He is rich, satiated and without a care in the world. That blessing is really a curse because the wicked man is unaware that every party ends with a bill.

Yisrael Meir Kagan, known as the Chofetz Chaim, sees the sinner similar to the contestants on Monty Hall. For decades, the sinner is certain that there will be no retribution for his behavior. When he reaches old age, the sinner admits to himself that he might have to pay but remains confident that nothing will harm him during life. He’s still gambling that he could choose the door with the brand-new Cadillac.

And that is where things go wrong. The Chofetz Chaim asserts that the sinner, regardless of his money and fame, begins paying during life. But the man is too busy to see or even feel the downturn. The sinner is oblivious even if the retribution is public. He has strayed so far from the truth that he no longer recognizes it. He has 1,000 reasons for his troubles and none of them has to do with G-d.

But others recognize the source of difficulties in a man’s fate. They are like the Jews of the fictitious town of Kasrilevke in the Sholom Aleichem story “On Account of a Hat.” Young and old snicker at the absent-minded Sholom Shachneh as he parades with a cap with a red band, accidentally taken from a real inspector at a train station in czarist Russia.

Wherever he went, they trooped after him shouting “Your Excellency! Your excellent Excellency! Your most excellent Excellency!” [On Account of a Hat. Sholom Aleichem. 1913. Translated from the Yiddish by Issac Rosenfeld]

G-d, says the Midrash Psalms, wants us to use our eyes. Israel saw the splitting of the Red Sea and the people turned into divine roses. The same took place at Mount Sinai. Those who saw the desert Tabernacle and walked past the curtain became righteous.

The wicked shout that this is unfair. Is a Frenchman, American or Russian told to choose between a blessing and a curse, right from wrong, piety from mundane? They simply go through life without doors or choices.

Ovadia Ben Jacob Sforno addresses the complaint. The 16th Century philosopher says this is exactly Moses’ message to his people. You are not like other nations. They can select Door No. 2 — or spiritual neutrality. If they can’t have the car they don’t want the goat.

The Jew does not have a neutral or even a mediocre option. His choice is the blessing, which contains far greater gifts than anybody would ever need. The other end of the spectrum is the curse. This is not a garden variety response, rather a crushing divine blow for either an arrogant man or a complacent nation.

The good news is that you needn’t be Marilyn vos Savant to figure out the right choice.