I find it interesting to contemplate why the sages divided the parshiyot exactly where they did. This division happened much earlier in history than the one into chapters and verses (which was mostly just about making the Bible easier to cite), and it’s especially interesting to me when chapter and parashah divisions are just very slightly off, as they are here. Parashat ראה begins seven lines before the end of דברים chapter 11. Why did two generations vastly separated by time choose such slightly different places to make this division in the text?

It seems to me that chapter breaks tend to come in places that are obvious, like when a big shift in subject or perspective happens. Parshiyot are divided for more subtle pedagogical reasons, so that there is something cohesive to teach about in each one. To wit, chapter 12 begins with a rather tired formula of Torah verse, “These are the laws,” &c., &c. But this parashah begins, seven lines before, with a striking line that differs in tone from the parashah before:

רְאֵ֗ה אָנֹכִ֛י נֹתֵ֥ן לִפְנֵיכֶ֖ם הַיּ֑וֹם בְּרָכָ֖ה וּקְלָלָֽה׃
“See, this day I set before you blessing and curse:”
— Dvarim 11:26

This parashah is about upping the spiritual tempo. While it appears on the surface to be a continuation of the retelling of the past, present, and future of the people Yisra’el, and a recounting of divine laws they have already received, this parashah shifts into a more exoteric demonstration of the spiritual workings of the world and how those interact with worldly conditions.

The stakes are high.

For the first few lines, this blessing and curse feels a little like an echo of the conditional reward and punishment mechanics we were inundated with last parashah, but it quickly becomes more interactive and magical than that. Yes, the blessing is if the people follow God’s commandments, and the curse is if they don’t and stray after other gods, but it’s not that simple. When God brings the people into the promised land, they are to go up two specific mountains and pronounce this blessing and this curse, one on each mountain. Mosheh relates specific directions to find these places.

Now we go into the new chapter, which begins with injunctions to destroy all the idols and temples and altars to the previous inhabitants’ gods, erasing their names. We’ve heard all this before, but now it’s in the context of an elaborate ritual. It’s a magical conquest, not just a military one. Mosheh then describes the establishment of the ritual offerings and observances God has given them to do in contrast to those foreign ones they will have now closely observed as they destroyed all remnants of them.

This description is extra careful about a few things: There shall be no more making offerings anywhere one likes or in natural spots scattered all across the land; now there will be a specific Temple site for this. The blood of the offerings must not be consumed; it must be poured out on the ground. The produce of the land that is tithed for offering must be consumed in the sacred precinct of the Temple, nowhere else.

Because the people will now be spread out throughout a large land, God gives them permission here to eat meat in their own settlements, without having to go all the way to the Temple for it. As long as they eat no blood, the people are permitted to enjoy the animal produce of their land. But all the commanded offerings must be brought to the Temple and offered there.

This feels like a little bit of a concession to the human being’s animal nature, so Mosheh pumps the brakes on that here to make sure it doesn’t go too far. The people are not to follow after the ways of the people who lived in this land before. They are not even to inquire into how they lived and worshipped lest they like what they see and fall into those ways. Mosheh warns them frankly that this is a slippery slope to sacrificing their own children to alien gods.

Then Mosheh warns them neither to add nor take away from the precise law given through him. In Dvarim 13:2–6, Mosheh finally lays out what the risk is of listening to practitioners of divination, which has been forbidden several times throughout the Torah. Such a person may channel the instruction that the people should worship different gods with whom these people have no living covenant like they do with their own God. Mosheh warns them not to heed such a channel because it is simply a test from God to see whether they really love God with all their heart and soul. One who urges disloyalty to God this way shall be put to death, Mosheh declares. And this does not just go for weirdos on the margins; if your own kin or friends do the same, the punishment shall be the same. If a particular settlement has been won over to such practices, that town shall be razed to the ground and never be rebuilt.

Mosheh then moves on to other practices, which have been mentioned before, but the context here confirms that all these prohibitions are principally about separating the children of Yisra’el from foreign cultures and firewalling their own ways of life. No gashing oneself or shaving one’s head in mourning. No eating unkosher animals (which are exhaustively defined again here), or boiling a kid in its mother’s milk (which is interpreted very broadly by the rabbis down the generations to prohibit the eating of meat and dairy in the same meal).

The process of tithing of produce is laid out again. An interesting provision is made for people whose land is too far from the Temple to transport the produce: They may sell it and bring the money to the Temple, then buy whatever they want for offerings — including intoxicants! — and feast and rejoice there in the sacred precinct. Every third year, the tithe shall be left in their settlements for the Levi’im — who have no land holdings as the tribe designated for ritual activities — as well as the strangers, orphans, and widows to come and eat their fill.

The relieving of debts in the seventh year is recapitulated with all its financial procedures. Usury is prohibited within the people but permitted with other nations, which is explicitly defined as a source of geopolitical power and leverage. But as for the domestic parts, things are kept quite high-minded. The people are forbidden from becoming stingy about lending to their fellows when the seventh year is approaching. Giving readily is defined as a condition for God’s blessings on the people’s undertakings. Provisions are described for releasing people from servitude in the seventh year with some seed money to get started on their own. God wants justice and equity in this land.

At the end of this parashah, the festivals are reintroduced. Their specific timings, offerings, and observances are restated. This emphasizes the theme of this parashah: The people have a lot of spiritual responsibilities to maintain the homeostasis of this system. Though the Temple rituals are a vast and complex set of practices on their own, as we’ve seen in previous books, every descendant of Yisra’el has lots of their own rituals to carefully observe and keep track of. This people must truly be a kingdom of priests.

🤲