NITZAVIM-VAYEILECH 5763-2003
"Choosing
Life"
Rabbi
Ephraim Buchwald
There's
something very distinctive about the arrival of the
Jewish New Year. Whenever the Jewish High Holiday season
draws near there's always a special feeling in the air.
Somehow, the secular New Year that occurs in the middle
of the winter just doesn't measure up. It doesn't radiate
the feeling of a new year, a new beginning. The calendar
may say so, the football bowl games may be the focus
of everyone's attention, but it simply doesn't feel
like the genuine start of the year!
The
Jewish High Holidays on the other hand, always usher
in a sense of a new beginning. People return from vacation,
students prepare for school, and a new cycle begins.
It is a season of transformations, as summer comes to
a close and fall commences. It is as well a natural
time for contemplation, as people plan for the new season,
for family and for business. Some people may even be
under the mistaken impression that Labor Day is part
of the Jewish calendar. Could it be that some Divine
conspiracy is choreographing this exceptional time period,
so that even atheists are forced to acknowledge Rosh
Hashana? I wouldn't be the least surprised.
And
wonder of wonders, how coincidental is it that at this
very time of the year, the themes of the weekly Torah
readings suddenly seem to blend perfectly with the High
Holiday themes. Instead of the usual rules, regulations
and laws, Moses, in his final days as leader, pleads
with the Jewish people to remain faithful to G-d.
This
week's parashiot, Nee'tzavim and Va'yay'lech, contain
some of the most exalted poetry known to humankind.
Listen to these dramatic words, (Num 30:19) "Ha'eedoti
ba'chem ha'yom et ha'shamayim v'et ha'aretz,"
I call the Heavens and the Earth today to bear witness
against you, "Ha'chayim v'hamavet nah'tatee
l'fah'necha," I have placed life and death
before you, "Hab'racha v'hak'lalah,"
the blessing and the curse. And now the punch line:
"U'vacharta ba'chayim, l'maan tich'yeh, a'tah
v'zar'ehcha," And you shall choose life, so
that you may live, you and your offspring!
The
Almighty begs His children, beseeches them with all
His might, to choose life. He tells us that living the
moral life--loving G-d and clinging to Him, will not
only benefit the upright person, but will redound to
the benefit of children and to later generations. After
all, the truly good person must surely want to see his
good works continued by his progeny. On the other hand,
if a person obeys the commandments only halfheartedly
or regards them as a burden, his children will naturally
be unenthusiastic about embracing those values.
G-d's
instruction to "Choose Life" seems pretty
straightforward. All one need do is, as it says in Deuteronomy
30:20: "L'ah'ava et Hashem Eh'lokecha, lish'moah
b'koloh, ul'davkah vo," To love the Lord your
G-d, to listen to His voice, and to cleave to Him.
But
choosing life is not as simple as it sounds. We humans
are often blocked by our so-called "defense mechanisms"
which make it so difficult to acknowledge that our daily
behaviors may not be entirely correct. In fact our generation
is notorious for rationalizing its actions and justifying
its misdeeds. Remember that popular song "You Light
Up My Life"? The line: "How could it be wrong,
if it feels so right?" -- rings virtually as a
tag line for the values espoused during the final quarter
century of the second millennium.
A
true story: Two congregations in Johannesburg, South
Africa, one Orthodox, the other Liberal, decided to
hold a joint forum to discuss the topic: "The differences
and similarities between Jews." Nothing quite as
controversial as this topic had ever been chosen before,
and a huge crowd from both congregations gathered that
evening. The first speaker, the Orthodox rabbi, cited
the well known passage in the Talmud,(Sanhedrin 44a):
"Yisrael, af al pee sheh'chata, Yisrael hu,"
A Jew, though sinful, is always a Jew--implying that
all Jews, Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Zionist, cultural,
no matter how far they've strayed, are always regarded
as Jews.
The
Liberal rabbi rose and saw Joe, the President of his
Temple, in the audience, and asked Joe to stand so that
he could run a few questions by him. "Joe,"
the rabbi asked, "Do you observe Shabbat?"
Joe responded, "Of course rabbi!" "Do
you drive on Shabbat?" asked the rabbi. "Of
course, what's wrong with driving on Shabbat?"
questioned Joe. "What about kosher, Joe? Do you
have a Kosher home?" asked the rabbi. "Kosher!"
said Joe, "Of course not! That went out long ago.
There's no fear of trichinosis today. We no longer need
those ancient laws!"
The
Liberal rabbi then turned to Sam, the President of the
Orthodox synagogue, who was also in the audience, and
asked him to stand for a few moments. Sam's knees began
to shake, he wanted to run and hide rather than "face
the music" in public. His friends, however comforted
him by saying, "Sam, we know the answers. Don't
be afraid!"
Sam
rose haltingly, his face red like a beet. He was truly
mortified. "Sam," said the Liberal rabbi,
"What about you? Do you keep the Shabbat?"
Sam hemmed and hawed. He was embarrassed and began to
sweat. "I try," he responded meekly. "What
about driving on Shabbat, Sam?" asked the rabbi.
Sam looked around, everyone in the room was now gawking
at him. "I try not to drive," he responded,
barely audibly, "But in inclement weather I do
drive, though I never park in the parking lot, always
at least two blocks away!" The audience snickered.
"What about kosher?" asked the Liberal rabbi.
"At home we have two sets of dishes," Sam
said hesitantly, "But on the road, it's difficult..."
His voice faded away.
"You
see!" said the Liberal rabbi, his hands held aloft
triumphantly, "We are all the same. Liberal and
Orthodox! One people, one nation!"
The
audience went wild.
Sitting
in the audience was a visitor, a well-known rabbi from
Israel, who asked for permission to speak. He turned
to the Orthodox rabbi, congratulated him on his presentation,
then turned to the Liberal rabbi and raved about his
brilliant presentation. "But," he said to
the Liberal rabbi, "When you asked Joe, the President
of your Liberal Temple, whether he kept Shabbat or kashruth,
he basically dismissed the notion. When you asked Sam,
the President of the Orthodox synagogue, the same questions,
you, in effect, received the same answers, but Sam hemmed
and hawed, turned red, and was mortified.
"This,"
said the rabbi from Israel, "is what the prophet
Isaiah means when he says (Isaiah 1:18): "Im
yeeh'yu chata'eichem kah'shanim, kah'sheleg yal'beenu;
Im yah'adeemu kah'tolah, ka'tzemer yeeh'yu." Even
if your sins will be red like scarlet, they will become
as white as snow. If they are like crimson, they shall
become white like wool. If you feel "guilt"
for what you've done, says the prophet, then there is
a possibility that you will change. But if there's no
sense of guilt, then there is no chance for improvement."
Believe
it or not, Judaism believes in "guilt." Not
destructive guilt, like "You better improve or
G-d will punish you. Lightening will strike!,"
but "constructive" guilt, like "You could
do better," or "You could improve!" In
1973, the well known physician-philosopher Karl Menninger,
authored a book entitled Whatever Became of Sin?
in which he bemoaned the loss of values in The Western
World, and the blanching of the distinctions between
right and wrong. We dare not allow that to happen to
us –- the Jewish people. We are, after all, the
people whose entire "raison d'etre" is to
affirm those very distinctions.
The
Hebrew month of Elul, which precedes the High Holidays,
is our month of introspection. The Shofar is sounded
each day to arouse us from our stupor. As hard as it
might seem, healthy, constructive guilt is a
blessing. It serves as a catalyst to override our defense
mechanisms, and to help us acknowledge the changes that
we need to make in order to improve our lives and to
perfect our situation.
May
the coming New Year, be a time of blessing and health,
a time of positive growth for all the People of Israel,
and may we truly enlighten the world with our good and
noble deeds.
May
you be blessed.
