Our Parasha opens with the admonition:(11:26-28)’ראה: See, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse. The blessing, that you will heed the commandments of the Lord, your G-d, which I command you today; and the curse, if you will not heed the commandments of the Lord, your G-d, but turn away from the way I command you this day, to follow other gods, which you did not know.’ The Netivot Shalom comments:’We find that in the holy tomes, the word היום: ‘the day’, refers to Rosh Hashanah, which is known as the great day of the year, and this is what the words of our passuk: ‘ See, I set before you the day..’ allude to, the approaching great day of Rosh Hashanah, the awesome day on which the three books are opened. ‘If, in the literal sense, the understanding is that the three books are inscribed according to our conduct in the year now ending, the holy book, ‘Toldot Yaakov Yosef, expounds that it refers, in fact, to the future - to the coming New Year - when three new books are opened before every Jew, and he is given the opportunity to decide to be righteous and to write himself in the Book of the Righteous. ‘This is the meaning of the passuk:’See, I set before you this day, a blessing and a curse’: on Rosh Hashanah, I open before you the three books, and the blessing is when the Jew writes himself in the Book of the Righteous, accepting upon himself to observe the Mitzvot of Hashem, whatever may have been the situation in the years of now coming to an end, and become a ‘new’ person; the curse is ‘if you do not heed the Mitzvot of Hashem, your G-d, if he is unable to become a ‘new’ person, a righteous one. ‘This is the objective of the month of Ellul, which the Rav of Lechovitz calls the beginning of the new year, meaning that the task of every Jew is to make himself ready to crown Hashem as his King on all his limbs. ‘The Torah uses the word ראה: See, because - as the Zohar Hakadosh says - just as there are physical senses by which man sees and hears, so too, the heart is capable of seeing and hearing, and at a higher level. ‘There are specially elevated days, which speak to the Jewish heart, if he only harkens to them on these special days. ‘Parashat Re’eh is always read on the Shabbat preceding Rosh Chodesh Ellul, and, as the words of our Passuk state:’See, I give before you the day’, meaning: the Torah calls to us: Behold, in one month I will be giving before you ‘the day’: Rosh Hashanah, and you need to prepare for it. ‘The blessing is, that you hear in your hearts the call of that day, which calls on the slumbering heart to awaken, to the sound of the shofar. ‘The preparation for this starts already in the month of Ellul, when we need to incline our hearts to awaken, to hear the heavenly voice which calls to us: Awaken, which is why the shofar is sounded from Rosh Chodesh Ellul. ‘ The extent to which each person prepares himself before Rosh Hashanah, determines how much he will merit to receive the bracha of Rosh Hashanah, the bracha of hearing the voice of Hashem, the source of all bracha.’ The Darchei Noam - the son and successor of the Netivot Shalom - adds: ’Our Parasha is always read before the month of Ellul and the Days of Repentance, and we must therefore interpret the words: ’See, I give before you the day’, as alluding to the month of Ellul, which is ‘before you this day’: before Rosh Hashanah, ‘the day, the Day of Judgement, and ‘See, I give’: Hashem gives every Jew the ability of ראה:‘to see’. ‘The barier to teshuva, as the Days of Repentance approach, is the hardened heart, which prevents; yet, since there is a Mitzvah of teshuva, clearly it must be possible. ‘Another barrier is the sins the person bears,,as these, as the prophet teaches, separate and distance a person from the Creator, and from being able to do teshuva. ‘As against these, the Torah says:’See, I give you’, in the month of Ellul, which is ‘before you this Day’, the approaching Day of Judgement, the gift of ראה: seeing - not by our eyes, but by the ‘eyes of his heart’, enabling him to do teshuva. ‘ The Ba’al HaTurim alludes to this, by noting that in the passuk: (Nitzavim 30:6): ומל ה׳ אלקיך א׳ת ל׳בבך ו׳את ל׳בב זרעך:’ And Hashem, your G-d, will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed’, is an anagram of אלול: Ellul. ‘To appreciate his message, we must note that this passuk contradicts a passuk in Parashat Eikev: (10:15):’And you shall circumcise the hardness of your hearts’, which places on us this obligation, which is very difficult to achieve. ‘Therefore, in the passuk in Parashat Nitzavim, the Torah states that Hashem, not we ourselves, will circumcise our hearts. ‘The Sage, in noting the anagram therein: Ellul, comes to teach that, in this holy month, Hashem gives us the gift of a ‘seeing heart’, enabling us to do teshuva, ‘circumcising our hearts’, to remove the barriers to teshuva, to which we have alluded. ‘This is why the Torah chose the word ראה: ‘see’, and not the seemingly more apt language of שמיעה: hearing, as we are granted the gift of seeing the goodness of Hashem, to ‘see’ the bracha, and, at the same time, the curse of not doing so. ‘This, too, explains why, as to the bracha, the Torah uses the definite: ’the blessing that you will heed’ - whereas, as to the curse, it states ‘if you do not heed’ - because, in the preceding month of Ellul, one who has merited to ‘see, I have given you this day a bracha’, will assuredly hear Hashem calling him, on Rosh Hashanah.’ Rav Yehuda Leib Eiger comments:’The word היום: the day, is a source of great comfort to every Jew, whose heart is burdened by the thoughts of the improper deeds, from his birth till this day. ‘This is what the word היום alludes to: each and every day in which a person has regrets over his past conduct, brings closer his salvation, as on that very day, Hashem gives him the bracha. ‘As the words of the Torah are eternal, every day Hashem says: ‘See, i give before you’ specifically ‘today’. ‘Therefore, as the days of favor and mercy approach - the month of Ellul - when assuredly the heart of every Jew is moved to do a חשבון נפש: soul searching, we read this Parasha, before Rosh Chodesh Ellul, to alert each Jew, that Hashem sees his awakening and preparation to come closer to Hashem, and immediately gives the person the bracha, the assistance to do so. ‘This is alluded to in the known anagram of Ellul: א׳ני ל׳דודי ו׳דודי ל׳י, that when a Jew awakens below, immediately there is an awakening Above, by Hashem, to assist him. This, too, is alluded to by the concluding words of our sedra (16:17): איש כמתנת ידו: according to the person’s preparations to receive, he receives the bracha that Hashem our G-d gives him.’ Rav Elimelech miBlazhov sweetens our understanding, expounding on our passuk:’’See I give before you היום a bracha and a curse’: in the preceding month of Ellul I give you the ability to influence the judgement on Rosh Hashanah - which is called היוםֶ in the Zohar Hakadosh - that it should be either a bracha, or, heaven forbid, a curse. ‘The bracha is ‘that you should heed the Mitzvot of Hashem, your G-d’, to do teshuva in the month of Ellul, to atone for all your transgressions, and ‘a curse if you do not heed the Mitzvot of Hashem, your G-d’. ‘This alludes to the Mitzvah of hearing the shofar, that Hashem commanded to hear on Rosh Hashanah, which is called היום. The bracha is that you should do so ‘before’, hearing the shofar throughout the month of Ellul, to awaken and to be roused to teshuva. ‘There is a beatiful allusion to this in our passuk, the gematriya of ראה אנכי נותן לפניכם היום is the same as תקעו בחדש שופר!. A further beautiful allusion: the letters of ראה, are an anagram of אלול ראש השנה- ר׳אש א׳לול ה׳שנה - the gematriya of which three words, is the exact gematriya of כתיבה וחתימה טובה - to allude that, by awakening to do teshuva in Ellul, when Rosh Hashanah is nearing, we will merit to be written and inscribed in the Book of Life, and to all the other brachot Rav Pinchas Friedman adds:’The gematriya of these three words: אלול ראש השנה, are also the gematriya of the words (Ps’ 115:5)’פה להם ולא ידברו עינים להן ולא יראו:They have a mouth, but do not speak, eyes, but do not see’, to allude, that by the blowing of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah, the satan is silenced, and cannot cast accusations against Bnei Israel. ‘By awakening in the preceding month of Ellul, atonement will have been made for any past sins, and nothing is left for the accuser, on which to argue. ‘There is a beautiful insight of the Megal’e Amukot, that this is the meaning of the passage in Balak, when Balaam is charged (22:8) : ‘Go and ארה: curse for me, this people, because they are too mighty for me.’ ‘Balak sought, as alluded to by his word ארה, to nullify from Bnei Israel the power of Rosh Hashanah and Ellul, ראה, as we have pointed out, being the anagram of ראש השנה and אלול; but Hashem turned his intended curse to a bracha, by changing the order of the letters of ארה to ראה::ראה אנכי נותן לפניכם היום את הברכה, alluding to bracha, if we precede to do teshiva in Ellul, ‘before’ Rosh Hashanah.’ A parting insight from the Chatam Sofer: ’Our passuk starts in the singular: ראה, but concludes in the plural: לפניכם. ‘This alludes to the saying of our Sages (Kid’ 40:2):’A person should always see himself, and the whole world, as if it is half entitled and half indebted; fortunate is the one who has decided himself and the world to credit, and woe, if the opposite.’ ‘This should be in our forefront before every action we take.’ לרפואת כל חיילי צה"ל ולרפואת נועם עליזה בת זהבה רבקה ונחום אלימלך רפאל בן זהבה רבקה, בתוך שאר חולי עמנו
