In the Portion of Re'ay we find ourselves taken for the first time into the vast body of laws to be found in Deuteronomy. It is here after he has taught the ideals by which man is to live that Moses give his people the tools to erect the nation which is to be a model for that which God demands of all man.

The laws begin with the command to destroy the remnants of idolatry that shall be found throughout the land:

“You shall surely destroy all the places, wherein the nations that you are to dispossess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every leafy tree.” (Deuteronomy 12:2)

In contrast to this mode of worship Moses states:

“You shall not do so to the Lord your God. But to the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put His name there, even to His habitation shall you seek, and thither you shall come.” (Ibid. 4-5)

Moses here rejects not only idolatry, but also the notion of liberty in location of worship.
Indeed he goes on to proclaim:

“You shall not do...every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes” (Ibid.8)

Ultimately the idea of centralized worship is to become a theme throughout these laws. The sight described as “the place which God shall choose” appears twenty times in this second section of Moses' speech. Indeed it is designated as the place of offerings, of tithes, the meeting place of the three pilgrimages, the place to appear before God, the seat of the supreme court, the service place of the Levites, and the place to bring one's first fruits.

Strangely our portion carries a contrast. As the ideal of a religious center is weighed against the threats to monotheistic values. Indeed we are cautioned to avoid false gods, false prophets, and all those who would lure one to worship them. Moreover we are adjured to avoid even the mourning practices of those around us,

“you shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.” (Ibid. 14:1)

The reason given:
“You are the children of the Lord your God...For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be His own treasure out of all peoples that are upon the face of the earth.” (Ibid. 1-2)

Even the enigmatic dietary laws are associated with this theme: “for you are a holy people to the Lord your God.” (Ibid. 21) A complete division from the practices of those who came before is demanded. As Moses commands war be taken up against any memory of idolatry

Yet this zeal leaves us perplexed. Are the dangers of idolatry so great? How could enlightened Israel possibly come to serve “the work of their own hands..wood and stone?” We are commonly baffled at the foolishness that was the pagan cult. Rational and logic seem to demand more of man.

In truth our perspective is radically removed from that of ancient man.. It was the revolutionary Scottish philosopher David Hume who revealed the origins of paganism to lie in fear and not thought. His twin works The Natural History of Religion and Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion illustrated that the ancient pagan cult was rooted in man's desire to find power in a random and often cruel universe. Modern Political thinker Yoram Hazony explains:

“Before idolatry there was only helplessness-the belief of an infant who falls but knows neither the reasons for his hurt, nor any way of preventing his suffering from recurring. Idolatry was the first intellectual endeavor of man as he rose above the immediate and the visible in the search for effective means of treating his afflictions.” (Yoram Hazony, The Dawn pg. 62)

Idolatry gave to man the opportunity to manipulate his gods and thus control his fortune. The great evil of idolatry lies in the moral relativism to which it leads. In the name of control over the destiny of one, the life of another is readily given before a god of stone. In a world of idolatry there is no notion of good and evil, only what may grant power and what may anger the gods. This Hazony elucidates for us:

“The idolatrous farmer believes that his need for rain may be alleviated through murder, because no other causes for rain are considered beyond the most local...likewise, the idolatrous farmer believes his need for rain can justify murder, because no other effects of murder are considered beyond the most local one-his own betterment and that of his priest. Idolatry is thus in its core an arrogance: the belief that local truth of one's perspective comprises truth as a whole.” (Ibid. pg.63 emphasis added)

The innovation of Israel was the declaration of universal truth. There is one God, and He in the words of the prophet “is exalted in righteousness.” In its light the moral relativism of idolatry is unacceptable. As Moses claims in the beginning of our portion “you shall not do...every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes” (Deuteronomy 12:8) for there is a supreme will and we are adjured to “do that which is right in the eyes of the Lord.” (Ibid. 24)

Thus the war against all the practices of Canaan may be understood in Hazony's words:

“The purpose of the wars of Judaism against idolatry.was to protect Judaism and ultimately all of mankind from infection by an idea-an idea which, once accepted duped men and drugged them into moral insensibility, justifying in their minds every conceivable darkness. Idolatry was amnesia, and against it Judaism strove to make man remember: that murder was evil, that perversion was evil, that right was a tree of life to those who embrace it, that wrong would bring certain ruin.” (Yoram Hazony, The Dawn pg. 66 emphasis added)

The charge of Moses is one that calls for a society to know its origins. Human beings by nature are influenced by their society even as society is influenced by the collective decisions of man. The existence of a single fixed place of worship serves as a reminder to this truth. In not being allowed to worship wherever he chooses man is reminded that he may not worship whatever he chooses.

In place of subjective morality was built a center for the nation of Israel. The walls of God's sight were to function as the ultimate place for man to find the influence of truth and with it the strength to battle the immorality that surrounds.