19 Aug RE’EH: SEIZING TODAY’S OPPORTUNITIES

Parashat Re’eh begins with
Moshe Rabbenu making
the following
pronouncement to Beneh
Yisrael:
“Re’eh Anochi Notein
Lifneichem Hayom Bracha

U’klala.”
See that I am placing before you today a
blessing and a curse.
The commentaries explain that every day,
Hashem gives us opportunities. Everything
He gives us is another opportunity to serve
Him, to do something meaningful, and to
attain greatness.
Everything our community has been
blessed with – its shuls, its schools, its
programs, its close-knit nature – is an
opportunity for us to do great
things. Everything we have in our personal
lives, too, is an opportunity. And yes, even
the challenges that we face are an
opportunity for us to grow by overcoming
them and persevering. It is up to us to
decide whether to turn everything we have
into a bracha or a klala – a blessing, or,
Heaven forbid, the opposite.

Moshe here emphasizes that this
opportunity is given to us hayom, today,
right now. Too often, we think to ourselves
that only when such-and-such happens,
when such-and-such problem is solved, or
when something changes, we will be able
to achieve and do what we know what we
need to do. Moshe tells us that there is no
reason to wait. Anochi Notein Lifneichem
Hayom. Today, right now, whatever is
going on in our lives, we have the
opportunity to choose bracha, to take all
that Hashem has given us, and turn it into a
blessing.
I was once talking to friend toward the end
of the summer, and I asked him how his
summer was going. He lamented that he
had been eating too much during the
summer, and gained weight.
“So what are you going to do about it?” I
asked.
“I’ll go on a diet after the summer,” he
replied.
This is the mistake that so many of us
make. We decide to wait. We don’t realize
that already hayom, right now, we can
bring bracha into our lives. We don’t have

to wait for the end of the summer, or for
anything else to happen, to enjoy and take
advantage of Hashem’s blessings. Already
today, no matter what is happening in our
lives, we have precious opportunities to
grow and achieve.
There is also something else worth noting
in this opening pasuk.
The pasuk begins in the singular form,
addressing the individual – re’eh – but then
immediately transitions to the plural form
– lifneichem. The explanation might be
that in order to find the opportunity
for bracha today, we need to look as
individuals, at our own lives, without being
distracted by other people’s lives. Re’eh –
we have to look by ourselves, individually.
One of the greatest obstacles to capitalizing
on our opportunities is a phenomenon
known today as “FOMO” – the “fear of
missing out.” Once upon a time, this was
something that teenage girls suffered
from. But now, it seems, even adults
experience FOMO. We see lots of cars
parked near a home, and we right away
realize that there’s some event going on
which we didn’t know about – and we feel

we’re missing something. We hear of things
happening, and we right away think we
need to join. We’re always looking around
to see what other people are doing, thinking
that we should probably be doing that, too.
If we are going to live our best lives, then
we need to focus on living *OUR* best
lives. We have to be able to block out the
noise, to ignore what other people are
doing, and to focus our attention on the
opportunities that Hashem has given us to
shine and excel. We don’t have to be doing
what others are doing – we need to be doing
the things that will make our lives the most
meaningful, the most fulfilling, and the
most accomplished that they can be.