This article was originally published in 2013.
The portion Re’eh begins, “Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse.” Here, the Torah is not simply talking about the time when Moses was in the desert with the Israelites; it is also speaking about us right now. The sages teach that from the time of the fall of Adam until the Gemar HaTikun, the Final Correction, everything in this world – every situation, everything we look at, and every person - is a mixture of good and evil, positive and negative.
"We are given a choice whether to connect to the positive or the negative."
It is our choice, however, what we look at and what we connect to. We may think, for example, that we are a good person who is simply seeing the negative in someone else, but this is not the case. What we are really doing is connecting to the darkness within that person. Similarly, when we choose to see the negativity within something or some situation, we are connecting to the darkness within that thing or situation.
The reality is that at any given moment, when we look at anyone or anything, we are given a choice whether to connect to the positive or the negative, and it is important to understand that the choice we make is where our connection is going to be. Each of us is a mixture of Light and dark, and when we succumb to the demands of our negativity and focus on the darkness within someone else, we make a perfect union between our darkness and that of the other person.
On the other hand, when we see the good within someone, we awaken our Light and connect to the other person’s Light. It is a two-way street. Unfortunately, most of us think that when we judge someone or something, it is a one-way street: I am good, and I am looking at what is bad. No. We have to be clear that in absolutely everything at any given moment, when we see the positive or the negative, it is what we awaken within ourselves.
This powerful insight is different from the way most of us view people and the world around us. We need to learn to strengthen our positive side and gain control of our negativity, so that when we look outside of ourselves at a person or a situation, we will connect to only the positive that is there.
"What we see in others is the energy that is awakened within ourselves."
It is impossible for us to see something that we do not first awaken within ourselves; what we see reflects the level where our consciousness is. If we see the darkness, this indicates to us that our negativity is seeing their negativity. If we were connecting to our positivity, we wouldn’t see what is negative in another person or certain situation - not because it is not there, but because it is not what we are connecting to.
What we see in others is the energy that is awakened within ourselves. Moses was one of the greatest souls who ever lived but he also had a shell around him. If someone wanted to, they could rightfully see all kinds of negative things within him. And unfortunately, throughout the time in the desert, many of the Israelites chose to see the darkness. But what were these Israelites actually seeing? They were not seeing Moses’ negativity; they were awakening their own darkness, and their darkness was connected to the shell around Moses that would then be viewed as negative.
How we view the world and the people around us influences what happens next in our lives. If we choose to focus on the good within a person, we not only overwhelm our negativity with our positivity and connect ourselves and the other person to the Light of the Creator, we also awaken positivity within the other person. So the question to ask ourselves is: what is the overwhelming factor within us? If we are seeing the negative, it is because our negativity is overwhelming us. When this happens, we disconnect ourselves and the situation or person from the Light, creating separation.
When we understand and own this tremendous concept, we have the ability to transform situations. With the words, “Behold I set before you this day a blessing and a curse,” the Creator tells us to remember that in every moment of every day, in every situation, and in every person that we meet, the Light is putting before us not all positive or all darkness, but rather a mixture of both.
By seeing the good within the mixture, we connect to its Light, thereby awakening more Light. When we choose to allow our positivity to overwhelm the darkness, we eliminate judgment and negativity – and open ourselves to receive endless blessings.
