One of the gifts of great leaders and one from which all of us can learn is that they frame reality for the group.

They define its situation, they specify its aims, they articulate its choices.

They tell us where we are and where we're going in a way no satellite navigation system could.

They show us the map and the destination and help us see

why we should choose this route, not that. That's one of their most magisterial roles, and no one

did it more powerfully than did Moses in the book of Devarim. Here's how he does it at the beginning

of this week's parashire. See, I'm setting before you today

the blessing and the curse, the blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I'm

giving you today, the curse if you disobey the commands of the Lord your God and turn away from the

way that I command you by following other gods which you have not known. And here in even more powerful

words is how he puts it later in the book. See, I set before you today life and the good, death and the

bad. This day I call the heavens and earth to witness against you that I have set before you

life and death, the blessing and the curse, therefore choose life.

So you and your children after you may live. What Moses is doing here is defining reality for the

next generation and indeed for all generations. He's doing so as a preface to what is about to follow

in the next many chapters, namely a systematic

restatement of Jewish law covering all aspects of life for the new nation in its land.

Moses does not want the people to lose the big picture by being overwhelmed by the details.

Jewish law with his 613 commands is detailed. It aims at the sanctification

of all aspects of life. Its aim is to shape a social world in which we turn even seemingly

secular occasions into encounters with the divine presence. Despite the details, says Moses,

the choice I set before you is really quite simple.

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