At the start of Re’eh, this week’s Torah portion, we read:

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

As if to say, ” Look guys, you got two choices: blessings or curses.” It is interesting to see how this is framed as a duality . We pretend that our lives fit into a binary, like a computer.

But it’s not. Things are much more complex.

As  Brené Brown, my vulnerability Rebbe, teaches:

I spent a lot of years trying to outrun or outsmart vulnerability by making things certain and definite, black and white, good and bad. My inability to lean into the discomfort of vulnerability limited the fullness of those important experiences that are wrought with uncertainty: Love, belonging, trust, joy, and creativity to name a few.

Things are never as simple as a binary. My father used to say, ” Even death is good for the grave digger”. We tend to enjoy black and white over grey or the entire rainbow.

But, this is not the first time we have seen a binary choice in the Torah. It is noteworthy that when Avram, Sarai, and Lot left Egypt on their way back to the Promised Land they came with an abundance of cattle. There we read:

And there was quarreling between the herders of Avram’s cattle and those of Lot’s cattle.—The Canaanites and Perizzites were then dwelling in the land.— Avram said to Lot, “Let there be no strife between you and me, between my herders and yours, for we are kin. Is not the whole land before you? Let us separate: if you go north, I will go south; and if you go south, I will go north.” Lot looked about him and saw how well watered was the whole plain of the Jordan, all of it—this was before the Lord had destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah—all the way to Zoar, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt. So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan, and Lot journeyed eastward. Thus they parted from each other; Abram remained in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled in the cities of the Plain, pitching his tents near Sodom. (Genesis 13:7-12)

Like the Israelites being given a binary choice here in our Torah portion, Lot is give a choice by Avram. If he goes right, Avram will go left. And visa versa. We have read this book so many times that we know he will end up in Sodom, but in the moment of Lot’s choice both are up for grabs. It seems that Avram is willing to cut off his nose to spite his face, unless there is something larger at play here. Avram was promised this tract of land, but is willing to give it up in the name of peace between the two groups of shepherds. Peace seems to only exist in the grey space.

In this intense moment of trying negotiate between Israel’s right coalition in the Government and Hamas on the other side, it is hard to imagine the mindset of Avram to offer Lot this kind of choice. Since October 7th we we need the moral clarity to have binary thinking when it comes to Hamas and Ben Gvir. We need to be able to say when something is right and a blessing and when something is wrong and a curse. And that has little to do with saving the lives of everyone else. What about the hostages? What about the Palestinian children? What about Israelis who have been at war for close to 2 years? Black and white thinking will only get us so far. Beyond that point it is a curse. There is a blessing is seeking a path of peace in the grey.