“The blessing if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today; the curse if you disobey the commands of the LORD your God” — Deuteronomy 11:27–28

The Torah portion for this week is Re’eh, which means “see,” from Deuteronomy 11:26–16:17, and the Haftorah is from Isaiah 54:11–55:5.

A story is often told to illustrate the main theme of this week’s Torah portion. Today’s story takes place in a certain town with a very tall building that belonged to a very wealthy man. Every Tuesday at 2 p.m., the man would stand on the roof of the building and throw down money. People would gather from all around at that time and stare at the ground. As soon as the money dropped, they pounced on it.

One day, instead of money falling from the sky, rocks and pebbles, and even boulders began to fall. Suddenly, the people stopped staring at the ground and began to look up, trying to figure out what was happening. Who was on top of the building? And why was that person throwing rocks at them?

When money fell, the people only cared about what came down from the building, but when rocks were falling, suddenly they were interested in who was doing the throwing and why.

This week’s portion begins with a choice and a promise. We can choose curses or blessings, and God will honor that choice. We read, “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse— the blessing if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today; the curse if you disobey the commands of the LORD your God.”

The rabbis note that the verse does not say that God is setting before us a choice between wealth and poverty. Scripture does not intend to promise riches for obeying God’s words or lacking wealth if we do not. Rather, God promises us blessings or curses; wealth does not equal blessings, and poverty is not necessarily a curse. The rabbis teach that a blessing is a state we enter as we listen to God and follow Him. A curse is any situation in which we lack a relationship and alignment with our Creator.

As the story illustrates, sometimes poverty can lead us to blessings. We look up to heaven when we experience difficulties in life. At the same time, wealth can lead to curses. Sometimes we forget about God when we have everything in the material world that we could ever want. I once heard it put this way: “Some people are so poor, all they have is money.” True riches and blessings are found in a relationship with God.

Resolve today to be blessed. It doesn’t matter whether we have a little or a lot; we can always choose a life of blessings when we choose God. Listen to the guidance He has for us, read His Word, get in alignment with our Father, and be blessed.