Miller's Musings Parshas Re'eh: The Grass is Always Greener on the Other Mountain

בס''ד

Location, location, location.  Apparently those are the three most crucial elements when looking at a property.  And if location is of great prominence with regard to material matters, it is even more so with relation to spiritual events and where they take place.  Moshe informs the Jewish people this week that when they enter Eretz Yisroel certain curses must be declared on Mount Grizim whilst particular blessings must be proclaimed on Mount Eivol.  We will not try here to understand why specifically a mountain was chosen, but rather question why the same land feature would be used for both.  If a mountain is suitable for blessings, surely a valley or deep chasm should be chosen for curses.

Depending upon the particular perspective we are coming from, there are certain characteristics, situations and experiences that we deem to be positive or negative.  A rich person may view their wealth as a burden due to their many responsibilities and the many physical desires at their disposal, due to their affluence.  Poor people will see their poverty as an insurmountable challenge, facing the daily grind of eking out a living, not allowing for the luxury of spiritual pursuits.  Each one sees the other’s situation as the superior.  Theirs as a curse and the other’s as a blessing.  In truth, of course, the only thing that determines whether it is really good or bad, is the attitude of the one who experiences it and the manner in which they deal with it.  I would like to suggest that this is the message being conveyed by both blessing and curses emanating from the same source.  They are in essence truly one and the same.                                        

If there is one thing we all, without exception, excel at, it’s at finding excuses and justifications for ourselves.  No matter how wrong our actions are, we somehow manage to extricate ourselves from any culpability.  To this end one of the main ploys we utilise is the plea of unfair circumstances.  “If our lives were only like this….If I only had this ability….If I had not been given this challenge, then I would never have fallen in this manner.”  We endlessly look to the ‘easier’ lives of others to help vindicate our own failings, when in truth no matter what hand we would have been dealt, we would still have encountered trials of our character, perhaps of a different format, but of no less difficulty.  If we are to succeed at anything of meaning, our first task must be acceptance of the life we have been selected for and the perfection of our specific place in the grand scheme of all existence.

May our Shabbos be the most perfect our Shabbos could possibly be. 

לעילוי נשמת לאה בת אברהם