Defining Jewish Identity: Re’eh
By Rabbi Boaz D. Heilman
August 7, 2026
This week’s Torah portion, Re’eh (“Behold,” Deut. 11:26-16:17), contains several problematic passages. With its call to “utterly eradicate” (12:2) all foreign idols and forms of worship and even their locations (“Upon the lofty mountains, upon the hills, or under every lush tree”), Re’eh comes off not only tough, but downright ruthless towards any other religious practices that might dissuade the Israelites from the worship of the one God, “Adonai, the God of your ancestors.”
The vehement tone of the commandment, accompanied by “blessings” and “curses” that would result from following or, conversely, disobeying it, is proof of the importance given to it by the author/s of Deuteronomy—be they Moses in the 13th century BCE or the High Priest Hilkiah who “discovered” it during the reign of King Josiah in the 7th century BCE.
Controversial as this commandment might seem to us today, it’s only one of 55 commandments that the portion contains, many of which seem excessive—not to mention illegal—when viewed through the lens of modern sensibilities. Yet the focus of Re’eh as a whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The overall intent of the portion is not only to prescribe and proscribe, but rather to define Jewish identity.
Who is a Jew?
The question comes up throughout history, yet to this day remains unresolved. The answer varies from one individual to the next, from one rabbi to the next, from one community to the next.
Jewish identity has evolved through the ages. At our earliest point, we were called “Hebrews.” That’s how Abraham is identified; that is how Joseph identifies himself to Pharaoh.
During the centuries of Egyptian slavery, however, we were transformed. No longer a single family or tribe, in Egypt we became a people, unified under a new name—B’nai Yisrael, the Children of Israel (Jacob).
Our faith (not called Judaism for several centuries yet) combined individual as well as collective duties and responsibilities. Our relationship with God, on the other hand, was always singular and unique, which is one reason why it’s so difficult to define Jewish faith: It varies with each person’s perspective and belief. Yet, while resulting in divisions and sometimes even uprisings, one thing remained certain through the ages: Our peoplehood.
The purpose of the commandments in Re’eh is not to enforce belief. Rather, it is to help us define ourselves as a people. Thus, the portion lists laws and customs, sets a distinct calendar, institutes religious practices that differ from other peoples’ even if they occur at the same time and season of the year, and emphasizes the centrality of our national homeland and the Jerusalem Temple in our hearts, souls and minds.
The forms of Judaism have evolved through the eons. Most visibly today we have Reform, Conservative and Orthodox Jews; Ashkenazi, Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews; secular, Haredi and Hassidic Jews. Each movement has its own subdivisions, streams and branches. Each can be identified by its foods, clothing, music, spoken language and dialect.
Yet what we all have in common is our Peoplehood. Called Hebrews, Israelites, Jews, Bnei Menashe, Beta Israel, B’nai Yisrael—we are one people with many names. We share common roots of history and culture. We share a language, sacred and secular texts, and we celebrate the same holidays as have our ancestors throughout the ages.
Our various communities share similar histories and the amazing texts and teachings that resulted from historical events that helped shape us.
We share a national homeland—though our attitudes and relationships with it may differ. Some ultra-Orthodox groups believe that the return of our exiled People to the Promised Land hinges on the coming of the Messiah at some unspecified time in the future. At its inception in the early 1800’s, the Reform Movement, for its own reasons, downplayed Israel’s significance to our People.
All Jews share a history of persecution and redemption. The ancient Greeks and Romans considered us barbaric. Christianity and Islam saw us—at best—as religious heretics and kafirs, deserving of every punishment and indignity inflicted upon us. Under the Inquisition, Jewish bloodline was considered impure, giving rise to the racist views that developed during the Enlightenment and which then led to the systematic horrors of the Shoah, the Holocaust.
Yet the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel was never disputed. Hard as the nations of the world tried—beginning with the Romans, who attempted to erase our history and identity by renaming Judea “Palestine” and Jerusalem, “Aelia Capitolina,”—they were not successful. All the same, for centuries the Land itself remained a ruin—posted “proof” of the consequence of our supposed rebellion against God. As late as 1867, in his Innocents Abroad, Mark Twain described the Land as “a blistering naked treeless land… The more sacred the place, the greater the devastation….”
This was no coincidence. It was the culmination of thousands of years of cancel culture, religious, national, cultural, racist antisemitism.
In a recent campaign speech, Abdul el-Sayed, the Democrats’ candidate for one of Michigan’s Senate seats, claimed that “AIPAC and Israel are not the same as Judaism and the Jewish People.” This brazen and absurd statement reeks with the same stench as all the rest of antisemitism and antisemites. By sowing discord and divisiveness among the people he presumes to represent, el-Sayed proves his Machiavellian nature. Additionally however, by dissociating Judaism from Israel, el-Sayed not only shows complete ignorance of Judaism but also cancels one of the most important tenets of the Jewish People—its connection with the Land of Israel.
In Re’eh, this week’s Torah portion, written more than 1500 years ago, we read, “For you are a holy people to Adonai your God, and God has chosen you out of all the nations upon the earth to be His treasured people” (Deut. 14:2). One may disagree with the theology or philosophy of this verse, but not with its historicity. As objectionable as some Jews and many gentiles find it, within this belief lie the roots of our identity as a people and as a nation, and these cannot and will not be taken from us.
Our identity as Hebrews is a product of Mesopotamian persecution. We emerged from Egyptian slavery as the People of Israel. The Torah came out of the Babylonian captivity; Hanukkah celebrates our victory over the ancient Greeks. The Talmud and Midrash came out of the destruction of Judea by the Romans. The Sephardi and Ashkenazi communities arose from other destructions—and became glorious cultures in themselves. The State of Israel is the Jewish response to European, Islamic and American antisemitism of the 1800’s and 1900’s.
What the current crisis will lead to nobody knows, though history has a lot to teach us and unfortunately its lessons aren’t always happy or easy. Yet whatever the outcome, one thing will remain unchanged: Our identity as a People and our deep-seated connection to the Land of Israel. Some may dismiss the book of Deuteronomy and particularly this week’s portion, Re’eh, as obsolete. Yet this one truth is undeniable: We ARE a people, and the Land of Israel is our national homeland. One may hold whatever belief one chooses to; one may disagree with Israel’s government or policies; one may choose to live in Israel or be part of the Jewish diaspora. But one cannot say that Israel is not the same as Judaism. They are one and the same, interwoven with every breath and fiber of Jewish life and existence.
© 2026 by Boaz D. Heilman
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