Dear Friends,
“Choose life!”
What a simple – and even simplistic – admonition! What else could we choose?
Yet, it is one of the Torah’s most powerful declarations. It is found near the end of this week’s Torah portion (Deuteronomy 30:19), and it is preceeded by an equally powerful introduction:
“I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day; I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse, Choose life – if you and your offspring would live.”
Essentially, God has placed humanity on trial, and offers us the choice to choose that which allows a good life: following God’s teachings and commandments. The alternative is curse and death.
Yet, at this season when the proverbial Book of Life is open, and from Rosh Hashanah until Yom Kippur, we will feel an urgency to merit God choosing life for us as well, should we merit it, this command bears an extra emphasis. Not only do we feel the obligation that our own actions should reflect “choosing life,” but we might feel the pressure that the Eternal One should feel likewise.
The late, great Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, the former Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom, concluded his Passover Haggadah with this teaching: So, having earlier expressed the Jewish hope, “Next year in Jerusalem rebuilt,” we end the seder night with the universal hope that the angel of death will one day be defeated by the long-overdue realization that God is life; that worshipping God means sanctifying life; that God’s greatest command is “Choose life” (Deut. 30:19); that we bring God into the world by reciting a blessing over life.
It is funny how the simplest, and perhaps most simplistic statement, might stir so much consideration.
As we are on the cusp of completing the year 5784, it is a worthy time to look back and ask if we have done all that we could to “Choose life?” Can we do more? Can we elevate and sanctify our living so that life, itself, is exalted? Can we, again “Choose life!”
For a meaningful and healthy 5785!
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
“Choose life!”
What a simple – and even simplistic – admonition! What else could we choose?
Yet, it is one of the Torah’s most powerful declarations. It is found near the end of this week’s Torah portion (Deuteronomy 30:19), and it is preceeded by an equally powerful introduction:
“I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day; I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse, Choose life – if you and your offspring would live.”
Essentially, God has placed humanity on trial, and offers us the choice to choose that which allows a good life: following God’s teachings and commandments. The alternative is curse and death.
Yet, at this season when the proverbial Book of Life is open, and from Rosh Hashanah until Yom Kippur, we will feel an urgency to merit God choosing life for us as well, should we merit it, this command bears an extra emphasis. Not only do we feel the obligation that our own actions should reflect “choosing life,” but we might feel the pressure that the Eternal One should feel likewise.
The late, great Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, the former Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom, concluded his Passover Haggadah with this teaching: So, having earlier expressed the Jewish hope, “Next year in Jerusalem rebuilt,” we end the seder night with the universal hope that the angel of death will one day be defeated by the long-overdue realization that God is life; that worshipping God means sanctifying life; that God’s greatest command is “Choose life” (Deut. 30:19); that we bring God into the world by reciting a blessing over life.
It is funny how the simplest, and perhaps most simplistic statement, might stir so much consideration.
As we are on the cusp of completing the year 5784, it is a worthy time to look back and ask if we have done all that we could to “Choose life?” Can we do more? Can we elevate and sanctify our living so that life, itself, is exalted? Can we, again “Choose life!”
For a meaningful and healthy 5785!
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
