In this week’s Torah portion, it says:
…I have placed life and death before you, blessing and curse, and you should choose life, so that you will live…
Devarim 30:19
What kind of commandment is that? Would we have thought that death was the better option? Why does the Torah have to tell us to choose life? And isn’t it also obvious that choosing life would lead to us … living?
There is a difference between merely being alive and choosing life. Deciding to go on a walk and get some exercise is choosing life. Convincing yourself to stay on the couch instead is choosing death. Deciding to spend quality time with your family is choosing life. Convincing yourself that you just need that third episode on Netflix is choosing death. Holding yourself back from slandering someone is choosing life. Letting yourself say everything that is on your mind instead is choosing death.
When we make good decisions for our lives, we are choosing life. And the Torah words it that way specifically because it’s usually the path you have to actively work on to choose. The default path, the easy path, is death. If you don’t actively engage, actively use your free will to steer the ship, you will end up feeling lifeless, depressed, and lacking a zest for life.
If you are not actively choosing life, you will default to a path of death. You won’t physically die the next day, but you won’t look back on that time as life well-lived either.
These aren’t once in a lifetime decisions; they are the choices that we make every day. G-d constantly places life and death before us and gives us the opportunity to choose life.
A new year will be before us soon. A new month. A new day. What will you choose?
Good Shabbos,
Rabbi Altonaga and the JET Team
