Re’eh begins with a promise and a warning:  God will bless the people of Israel if you follow God’s commandments.  If you don’t follow the commandments, well…not so much.

Here’s what the people are to do when you enter Canaan:

• You are to demolish the worship sites of the Canaanites
  
  
• God will pick a place to “put his name there, to have it dwell,” and to there you are to bring your various offerings – freewill offerings, vow offerings, tithes, and firstborn animals. 
  
  
• Don’t sacrifice anywhere else and don’t eat your offerings, including in your home…unless, as you expand your territory, the slaughter site is too far away.
  
  
• Eat meat as you crave, but only kosher meat like the deer and the gazelle.  Don’t eat the blood of those animals, but pour it out on the ground.  For the blood is the life of the animal.
  
  
• You are not just to do what you think is right in your own eyes, but to follow God’s commandments.
  
  
• Rejoice before the presence of God — everyone including children and servants.

Food for Thought

What does it mean to “rejoice before the presence of God?”