Parashat Nitzavim-Vayelich

September 27, 2024
24 Elul 5784

PARASHAT NITZAVIM-VAYELICH
Deuteronomy 29:9 - 31:30

Dear Friends,

This Torah portion tells us we have a choice. In a section that rings in my heart and in my soul, we are told ““I have called heaven and earth today as witnesses against you. I have set life and death before you, blessing and curse. Choose life, so that you and your descendants may live to love your God.” (Deuteronomy 30:19-20)

What does it mean to choose life? As we prepare for the Yamim Noraim (Days of Awe), and think of our liturgy, it does not seem to indicate that whether we live or die is our choice. Where does our choice lie?

This past Sunday, about 15 of us visited the Invisible Worlds exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History. The exhibit engendered a sense of awe in the way it explored the interconnectedness of our universe. It served as a reminder that, much like the natural world, we too are connected to one another. In the natural world, things seem to connect that promote change almost accidentally, whether that change is positive or negative in the long run. The same is true for humans; we do not know, nor can we always predict, how our actions will impact ourselves and others in the long run. Where then does our choice lie?

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel z”l wrote that we are part of a chain going back through time. “Faith is an achievement of the ages, an effort accumulated over the centuries.” He compared it to the light of a star: long gone, yet the remnants of the light are with us still. That faith, that sense of awe and wonder are within our grasp if we choose to take it. The choice to go forward humbly, knowing that we are imperfect, knowing that at times all we can do is put one foot forward at a time, is ours. The choice to see ourselves as part of something that is striving to be better and not always succeeding but striving nonetheless, creates as sense of awe and wonder at the miraculous nature of it all.

In this past year, with all of its pain and uncertainty, what is the best way forward?

Heschel once asked, when did the Divine break the Ten Commandments? People would be puzzled, and he would reply “The Ten Commandments say you should not make an image of God. However, God made us in in God’s image.” And with that there is an obligation and an ongoing relationship. As God strives to perfect God’s self so do we strive to perfect ourselves and the only way forward is to choose life.

In this double portion, Nitzavim (you are standing) Vayeilech (and he went), Deuteronomy 29:9-31:30, we are reminded what choosing life means. It means living one’s life awake to those around one -- aware. Choosing life is not the antidote to death; rather, it is an invitation to live a life of caring, of hope, of gratitude, of wonder and of awe.

Shabbat Shalom, 

Rabbi Linda Shriner-Cahn