We read in our Parasha:(30:15-20) ’See, I have placed before you today the life and the good, and the death and the evil..I call heaven and earth today to bear witness against you; I have placed life and death before you, blessing and curse; and you shall choose life, so that you will live, you and your offspring; to love Hashem your G-d, to listen to His voice and to cleave to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days, to dwell upon the land that Hashem swore to your forefathers..to give them’.
Rav Eliyahu Shlezinger comments:”In these psukim, we find the source for the concept of ‘choice’- but they are wondrous! Did the Torah need to advise us ‘to choose life’? Are we dealing with fools, so that we need to be concerned that they might not do so?
“No! The Torah here comes to teach us a major foundation of Jewish life, not of physical life and death, but of the essence and nature of life in this world, because ‘there is life, and there is life’.
“The Torah comes here to answer the question of questions: what is ‘the life’ that we are to choose, and it answers:’To love Hashem, to hear His voice..’.
“It admonishes us ‘to choose life, so that you will live, you and your offspring’.
“When we look around, we see, alas, the saga of families where the parents strayed slightly from the path of this ‘life’, and their children stray even further than they did; and their grandchildren then stray in ways that would not have even occurred to their grandparents, and may even be totally lost to our faith.
“This is what the Torah is here teaching: ‘choose life’, and what is this ‘life’? That of continuity, that ‘you’ live, and that so too will ‘your offspring’”.
Rav Moshe Feinstein teaches us how to ensure this:”Clearly the reference to ‘offspring’ is not to be understood literally, as the Torah already warned that, if we choose the wrong path, death will result.
“Rather, it comes to teach, that the choice of ‘life’ should be of a life that will influence and inspire our offspring. A person may himself fulfill all the Mitzvot, yet not inspire his offspring to do so; when his Mitzvah performance is without joy, and by rote, this will likely be the way of his offspring.
“This is not what the Torah wants of us! It wants our performance of Mitzvot and Torah study to be with great joy, to show that it is our greatest pleasure, and more joyous than any pursuits of this world; only then will we truly have fulfilled the Mitzvah of ‘you shall choose life’ - and only then ‘you will live, and your offspring’”.
The Abarbanel adds:”Though the Torah adjures us to ‘choose life’, the reason for doing so should not be solely ‘so that you live, you and your offspring’, but rather ‘to love Hashem, to listen to His voice, and to cleave to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days, to dwell upon the land’, because THIS is the purpose of life: ‘to dwell on the land’ so as to live this life, and merit to fulfill these objectives”.
Rabbeinu Yona posits that, although it might appear, as the literal wording suggests, that we are given free rein to choose between two courses, ‘life and the good, and the death and the evil’, in fact, there is a positive Mitzvah to ‘choose life’, because the Torah posits:’Choose life’!”.
Rav Gedalia Schorr adds:”Hashem granted us a great chesed, in commanding us ‘to choose life’, as he thereby sanctified us, and elevated by the kedusha of the Mitzvah, to assist us to ‘choose life’”.
The Ktav Sofer expounds on this:”if one chooses to do bad, there is no barrier to him carrying out his intent- in fact, our Sages teach that:’One who comes to do wrong, is assisted from Above’.
“However, conversely, when one ‘chooses life’, only the choice is in his hands; to carry it out, requires the help of Hashem. In the words of our Sages:’Without Hashem’s help, one could not abstain from transgression, nor could he carry out a Mitzvah completely’.
“This is why the Torah is careful to say ‘choose life’, as only the choice to do is in man’s power.
“However, if he truly chooses to do good, he will be assisted from Above- this is the meaning of our Sages reaching:’He who comes to purify, will be assisted from Above’”.
The Kli Yakar offers the following insight:”David Hamelech beautifully encapsulated our purpose in life:(Ps’ 34:13)’Who is the man who is eager for life who desires days to see good’: he yearns for ‘days’ - to live - so as ‘to see good’ - to study Torah and to do Mitzvot, as it says in our Parasha: ‘to love Hashem..to listen to His voice and to cleave to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days’”.
A timely parting message from Rav Schorr:”The Torah’s language here teaches that we must choose life, that is: to know that the ways of the Torah are ‘life’, and to truly feel that ‘they are our life’, as we proclaim.
“Knowing this is an important way to prepare for the Days of Judgement when we pray for ‘life’, to truly feel that this is life, as then, when we ask to be ‘inscribed in the Book of Life’.
“Our Holy Tomes teach that the heart of our plea on Rosh Hashanah for life, is to cleave to the Tree of Life, our holy Torah”.
לרפואת נועם עליזה בת זהבה רבקה ונחום אלימלך רפאל בן זהבה רבקה, בתוך שאר חולי עמנו.
