By Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D.
SAN DIEGO — This year, we read Torah portions Nitzavim and Vayeilech, on the Shabbat before Rosh Hashana. It asks us where we stand as we enter the new year.
The parasha teaches that G-d tells us, “I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. You shall choose life, so that you and your offspring will live…” (Deuteronomy 30:19).
Do we really need to be told to choose life?
There are many interpretations of what it means to choose life. For example, the Yerushalmi interprets it as an obligation to earn a livelihood. Kohelet Rabba interprets it as an obligation to teach a son to swim, to ensure his physical survival. Remember, it says, “…so that you and your offspring will live…” Choosing to live a Jewish life with pride and joy, not with “oy,” benefits our offspring.
Choosing life means fully engaging with family and friends – physically, spiritually, socially, cognitively, professionally, and civically. It means continually learning, growing, volunteering, mentoring, traveling, maintaining an active spiritual/religious life. It also means pursuing a healthy lifestyle including good nutrition, exercise, mindfulness, and stress-prevention. This means using the inner strength, mentally and physically, to live a life of health.
Indeed, Judaism regards life as the highest good and we are obligated to live in a way that protects our health. Choshen Mishpat 427, Yoreh De’ah 116, and Chulin 9a make it clear that we are to be more particular about matters concerning danger to health than about ritual matters.
Choosing life means seeing beyond the material and connecting to the deeper essence of an experience. When we eat, we can focus on the taste of something or feel more deeply grateful for the ultimate source of the food we have, Hashem. We can look beyond the outside to see that which lies within experiences, the connections in life, to see the links that bring us together, to recognize that everything happens FOR us in life, rather than TO us.
These days upon us, Rosh Hashana, the Fast of Gedalia, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Hoshana Rabah, Shmini Atzeret and Simchat Torah, we contemplate our needs and our deeds, our hopes, and aspirations for the coming year. and in so doing, we choose life. This is a central message of the High Holidays…to choose life, to live a live filled with mitzvot, not just to pray to win a lottery or for the health of one’s body, but ideally, for the needs of our soul as well.
The parasha goes on to say, “To love the Lord your G-d, to listen to His voice, and to cleave to Him. For that is your life and the length of your days, to dwell on the land which the L-rd swore to your forefathers to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob to give to them” (Deuteronomy 30:20). This is choosing a life of wisdom and vision “To love the L-rd your G-d, to listen to His voice, and to cleave to Him…” which in turn allows us to receive His unbounded kindness, the gift of life.
How will you choose life this coming year? Will you choose to live for others joyously, fully engaged, loving the L-rd your G-d…that’s how you can be sure you will live fully and know what choosing life is ultimately all about.
Specifically we read in Vayelech, “Now write down this song and teach it to the Israelites,” that is, write or participate in writing, a Sefer Torah. We are told to take our past, carry it with us while renewing, refreshing, recharging our heritage for every generation. Want to gain immortality? Vayelech tells us to keep moving and renew ourselves, to renew our days as of old, to keep to the covenant we received while refreshing it in our lives today. What Sefer Torah, what ideals, will you write for yourself and commit to in the coming year? How will you internalize each parasha in the coming year with personalized freshness? After all, it is up to us to ensure that the message of renewal that Vayelech brings, continues for our future generations. How will you choose life this coming year? How will you live a life of Torah values and noble deeds?
Will you choose to live joyously, fully engaged, loving the L-rd your G-d…that’s how you can be sure you will live fully and know what choosing life is ultimately all about. These parashiyot guide us to move from a quarantined, distant mindset to a “heartset” that is close, at one with Hashem.
It is during these days that we are also most mindful of the choices we have made during the past year. We collectively and individually take a deep moral inventory, look at how we have behaved, we examine the faithfulness we have demonstrated in all our relationships with, and we make plans and promises for the new year to improve. The High Holy Days demonstrate the control we have – over ourselves. T’shuva, according to Maimonides, revolves around an elaborate, verbal articulation, a clarification process to address the most fundamental questions of our lives:
Who do we really want to be in the world? What are the values that we most cherish and wish to nurture in ourselves? What would we have to do to best nurture these values? What are the things that keep us from embracing certain visions of our best selves? What are the most authentic parts of our identities? What type of community do we wish to be part of, or do we aspire to create?
Rabbi Hanina taught: “Everything is in the hands of Heaven — except for the fear/awe of Heaven.” We can choose what we think, how we respond and how we act…everything else is in His hands. Nitzavim reminds us that we have the mental and emotional tools with which to make good choices, choices that help us improve our lives, and perhaps the lives of others.
One tool, the essential tool, is our genuine prayer, described in contemporary terms as “mindfulness” and “meditation.” Indeed, the positive impact on our physical wellbeing (brain through gut) that meditation, prayerful practice, that has been around for thousands of years, has been demonstrated in a recent study published by Harvard University. This time of the year, with the prodding we have inside of Nitzavim, reminds us of the opportunity we would be wise to set ourselves aside, to renew our mindfulness, our deeply concentrated meditative prayer, and reconnect ourselves with Hashem. Done well, we can eliminate our anxieties, our fears, and fill ourselves with faith.
Nitzavim opens with the words, Atem nitzavim hayom — that may be understood as, “You stand firm this day.” In the midrash Tanchuma it asks, “When (do the Jewish people stand firm)? “When you will be unified.” The parasha tells us that we are all standing before Hashem. In Lidutey Halachot, Reb Noson teaches that this points to the importance of achdus, of unity, for all Jews. All Jews…those who attend services, those who do not, those who keep that “law” and those who keep another “law,” those who dress that way or the other way. We are being urged to join together as one so that our prayers ascend to Heaven. From Reb Noson and Reb Nachman both, we are taught to always judge for the good, to look for the good points in each other. This year, aim to revere the divinity in every soul – every soul. Shhh, this year, recognize that nobody is better than another. That is how we nurture true peace and love everywhere.
Wishing all a “Ketivah v’chatima tovah,” “A good inscription and sealing in the Book of Life, “Leshana tovah tikatev v’tichatem” “May you be written and sealed for a good year,” and “A gut gebentsht yohr,” “A good and blessed year.”
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Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D., prepares a weekly D’var Torah for Young Israel of San Diego, where he and his family are members. They are also active members of Congregation Adat Yeshurun. He may be contacted via michael.mantell@sdjewishworld.com