The People & The Book: The Blessing of Social Justice

See, this day I set before you blessing and curse: blessing if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I enjoin upon you this day; and curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn away from the path that I enjoin upon you… (11:26-28)

By EETTA PRINCE-GIBSON
Social justice (photo credit: Nechama Rosenstein)
Social justice
(photo credit: Nechama Rosenstein)
The Torah portion Re'eh instructs us first to see, and then to choose. Only when we can see, envision, dream and believe, will we be able to make the choices that will lead us towards righteousness and peace.
The portion takes place as the Children of Israel are about to enter the Promised Land. Once in the land, the people will face the opportunity and the challenge to build a society according to God’s commandments. This society, God tells us, must be predicated on our memory of slavery in Egypt, and so it must be a fair society, based on social justice and the equality of all human beings:
“If, however, there is a needy person among you… do not harden your heart and shut your hand against your needy kinsman. Rather, you must open your hand and lend him sufficient for whatever he needs. (15:7-8)
The word used here is evyon, which can be translated as needy, rather than poor. The poor may eventually find the basics that are necessary for life, but what does the needy person require? The Talmud (Ketubot 67B) provides two answers: On the one hand, the rabbis teach us that we are to provide for basic sustenance. But Hillel the Elder understands that “for whatever he needs” means that even if the needy is lacking a horse to ride on and a servant to run before him, you must provide these for him.
There are clear political implications to these commandments. Indeed, verse 15:22 of this portion commands the slave owner to contribute raw materials to the freed slaves so that they will be able to sustain themselves. This is not merely a prescription for the distribution of property and ownership of the means of production; it is an injunction to create a social order based on compassion, justice, generosity of spirit, and kindness. Providing for the needy does not mean merely creating a system of welfare payments and allocations. Neediness is not merely about hunger and the lack of clothing and shelter; no less, it is about the loss of a sense of self-worth, the defeat of dignity. Neediness is being politically and socially invisible, and we are commanded to see.
And yet, even if we do fulfill God’s will, we are presented with a contradiction. First we are told:
“There shall be no needy among you – since the Lord your God will bless the land that the Lord your God is giving you as a hereditary portion. (15:4).
But then we read:
“For there will never cease to be needy ones in your land...” (15:11)
It seems that the verses are telling us that we may never fully eradicate neediness and poverty. But if we will ourselves to see, if we are able to look beyond the everyday, the mundane, the complexities and intricacies of our individual lives, to really see, and to open our hands and hearts, we will be able to create the just society that God envisions.
The wording of the portion is significant. The command, See! (re’eh) is written in the first person singular, while the rest is written in the plural. This ostensible discrepancy teaches us that each individual has his or her own responsibility to see. Each of us stands before his or her illusions, misperceptions and fears, and each of us has the ability to transcend them to define a life path. At the same time, each of us is part of and responsible to the community, which is still greater than the sum of our individual choices.
In addition, the wording is in the present, even though the Torah had already been given to the Children of Israel. So why is it not written in the past? And second, the portion contains no less than 55 mitzvot, but there is no narrative. Perhaps it is because the struggle for social justice is ongoing. When the Children of Israel were in the wilderness, God provided for their needs and the manna was distributed equally to all. But now the people are about to enter the Promised Land, where they will face the challenge of creating an economy, based not on manna but on production and services. And making this society just is a never-ending challenge. Throughout the generations, we continue to cross the Jordan River.
In Israel today, we are in the midst of symbolically crossing that river yet again. Throughout this issue of The Jerusalem Report, we have brought you the voices and the stories of the hundreds of thousands of demonstrators who have taken to Israel’s streets to demand social justice. They are able to see the present and envision the future. And they have chosen the blessing of social justice.