Choose Life, But Practice Holiness

Nitzavim-Vayelech
Deut. 29:9 Nitzavim” “we are standing”
Deut. 31:30 Vayelech: “and he went”

“ I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life--if you and your offspring would live--by loving the Lord your God, heeding God’s commands and holding fast to God.” Deut. 30:19

Sometimes while reading Torah, it seems I am watching a movie from its very beginning, one that I have seen before and know how it will end. God, especially, has seen this film play out over and over, and anticipates great displeasure; I would even say, God experiences great anxiety, knowing what will come. Yet, this Torah portion has a comforting note; the Presence that heals and restores, brings life, will not completely forsake us.

We are standing at Sinai, near the end of the beginning of our journey; the scene opens with the Israelites at the border between enslavement and exodus and the freedom and prosperity that comes from settling into a new home. God recounts what He has done for us and restates the covenant: “for us and our children ever to apply all the provisions of this Teaching” and forever to be bound under God’s outstretched arm. We’ve all been here before.

The stakes are high. God has seen the future and is not too happy about it. As we prepare to join Joshua--the new leader appointed to succeed Moses--we are admonished for future misbehaviors. But it is not an endgame: through the giving of social rules and protective laws, God offers a way back. In fact, we hold in our hands the very thing that will allow us to be returned to emotional stability when once again “the Lord will delight in our well-being.” But what we have in hand, must be inscribed in our hearts.

What we have is the Teaching: “Surely, this Instruction which I enjoin upon you this day is not too baffling for you, nor is it beyond reach. It is not in the heavens, that you should say, ‘Who among us can go up to the heavens and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?’ Neither is it beyond the sea . . . No, the thing is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart to observe it.” Deut. 30: 11-14

A clear contractual relationship arose in the days of our oppression and our freedom is not built entirely on faith, nor is it lacking in responsibilities at our end. Our freedom rests on laws to care for the weakest members of our society, hospitality rules for treating strangers with respect and kindness, laws to honor the dignity of animals, to care for the earth and the land, and laws for the proper execution of ritual. All of these commandments intend to preserve us in life.

One of the most famous passages in Torah, quoted above, is expressed in Nitzavim, which is followed with the final instructions to Moses, including a poem he must recite to remind us to “give glory to our God!” and that “There is no god beside Me. I deal death and give life; I wounded and I will heal.”

It’s one thing to read the book, another thing to live it. As a Reform Jew and humanist, it is also imperative to come afresh to each law and plumb it for its original meaning and intent, not to follow the rules blindly. Even if we are in a spiritual version of “Groundhog’s Day,” the film with Bill Murray and Andie McDowell where a hapless weather reporter is destined to re-live the same day over and over again until he learns what is important and how to behave, we have guidelines to go by. These must eventually be written in our heart because in that act of repetition, of practice, living a holy life begins to take on the clarity of making a crystal glass sing a fine high note through multiple rubbings on its rim.

This Torah portion is customarily the one just before we enter the Days of Awe, which commences with S'elichot and Rosh Hoshanah.