Mt. Eyval is Also a Part of the Holy Land

Look! I put before you a blessing and a curse…

And you shall put (cast) the blessing on Har Gerizim and the curse on Har Eyval…

I was wondering what this putting of blessing and curse on these mountains is all about.

It would seem that we are introduced in these first verses of the Parasha to the notion of Free Choice, being given two options – to do good and be blessed, and to do bad and be cursed.

But instead, we are just told to “put” the blessing and curse on two mountains of our holy land. Later in Deuternomy in a similar verse thing are much more explicit:

Life and Death I have given unto you, the blessing and the curse, and you shall choose Life.

But here we are just being asked to observe (and this Parasha is called: Re’eh – Look, Behold). To contemplate the blessing and curse, as if from a remote perspective, as if gazing up at two distinct mountain tops.

Before we choose, we have to contemplate the notion of Free Choice.

We must understand that indeed it is something which is given. A gift. A מתנה.

Because Free Choice is not a law of nature. Not really. HaShem could intervene in the world in such a manner that no choice would be left there but to obey Him. But in that way we would lose the opportunity to labor for what we earn, which is the only true sensation of fulfillment one could wish for.

The two options, are two gifts, just like the gift of the Holy Land. And just as we have to till Eretz Hakodesh, we must till and labor the earth of our choices.

That is why, I feel, the notions of blessing and curse are depicted as cast upon two mountains of the Land of Israel.

If we look in further and deeper, we may add that the choice is really between letting G-d rule us, negating Choice itself, and remaing free –  to choose the bad and evil.

Look! I give before you a blessing and a curse.

The blessing THAT you shall listen to the commandments of Hashem… and the curse IF you shall not listen…

Listening to HaShem is in itself a blessing, THAT comes from Him to us, if we just open ourselves to it, helping us conquer our bad motives. The other option is to remain at the mercy of caprice, at the mercy of our own frail forces, to combat sin, and then it’s only – IF.

But the two ways are “lands to till”, and Mt. Eyval is also a part of the Holy Land; and it is but the longer way – arriving at the same goal.

Eylul knocking at our doors… That’s the time to re-inspect the subject of Free Choice and its implications, for Teshuva Shlema – Full Repentance.

Rem.: The two twin mountains in the picture, are not, of course, Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Eyval, but a part of the promontory just above the North of Galilee town of Kiryat Shmona…

I love those mountains for some reason, even though they’re not especially tall or anything. But my imagination goes back to them just like that, inexplicably, in the middle of the day, even when I’m very far from them in my home city of Jerusalem. I think that looking at them I feel the force which stands behind them, that holds them tall and empowering…