The Choices We Make

My article on this week's parsha can be found here

Or, you can read it here.

Parsha Nitzavim-Vayelech: Life and Good vs. Death and Bad

By Rabbi Avi Billet

Issue of September 11, 2009 / 22 Elul 5769

In the context of thoughts on why “Tisha B’Av precedes Va’etchanan,” I raised the halakhic discussion point that Nitzavim is always read before Rosh Hashana (Shulchan Arukh 428). The Pri Megadim (in Eshel Avraham) points to the comments of the L’vush, who gives two reasons why Nitzavim precedes Rosh Hashana.

The first is more obvious. When one takes a cursory glance at Devarim chapter 30, the root word “shav” — return — appears seven times. This chapter (and the parsha in general), says the L’vush, raises important issues of “teshuvah,” or repentance. It is a perfect prelude to the Day of Judgment.

The second reason looks at some of the other parashot that appear in the list of the Shulchan Arukh, notably the rule regarding Tisha B’Av and “Bamidbar precedes Shavuos.” Devarim is read before Tisha B’Av because it includes Moshe rebuking the people, setting the stage for the gloomy nature of 9 Av. Bamidbar serves as a buffer between the tokhacha of Bechukotai and the holiday of Shavuos. Similarly, Nitzavim serves as a break between the tokhacha of Ki Tavo and Rosh Hashana.

Both Ki Tavo and Nitzavim have elements of rebuke. One might suggest Ki Tavo should specifically precede Rosh Hashana, to keep us in the right mood for the Day of Judgment. But the L’vush says Nitzavim is the parsha of choice for this week, because though it contains rebuke that we need, it does not contain curses, which are the last things we need leading into Rosh Hashana.

Compare Devarim 11:26 — “See that I am placing before you both a blessing and a curse” — to Devarim 30:15 — “See! Today I have set before you [a choice] of life and good, versus death and bad.”

In both cases, the Torah states that the way to receive the preferred first option is through observance of the Law, while the second one will come about through a conscious choice not to listen to the word of G-d. In our parsha, the “curse” option is removed, and is replaced with “death and bad.”

Wouldn’t “death and bad” be the ultimate curse? Before we consider the everlasting bliss the soul experiences in the world to come, “death and bad” represent the end of the human experience that we all cherish. Not using the word “k’lalah” (curse) does not count for avoiding curses in Nitzavim if the option given is, in essence, a curse.

In Devarim 30:19, the Torah seems to indicate that the choices it gave us in 30:15 were indeed a blessing and a curse, but it tells us to choose life. The Dubno Maggid asks, “Why does it not say to choose ‘life and good’ as had been originally suggested?” He answers that people may not necessarily know what will be good for them, so they are better off just choosing a generic “good life” than specific things they think will be good. Put faith in G-d that He will give you things that are good for you.

If we are now choosing life because G-d tells us to, and if the curse “option” isn’t really an option anyway, why was it on the table to begin with? Would anyone who values life consciously choose “death and bad” when “life and good” are equally available?

The Akeidat Yitzchak suggests that the verse refers not to a curse brought on as a punishment of G-d, but to a death brought about due to a person’s life choices. Some people choose to live life to the fullest and make the Torah and mitzvot central to their existence, and some people choose to live such that, “even when they are alive, they are dead.”

Is it a curse to live a life devoid of G-d, spirituality, and the pursuit of deeper fulfillment? Is it a curse to look to billboards, movie stars and athletes for role models as opposed to your parents, your neighbors, teachers, and rabbis? Is it a curse to view summers and vacation days as times to get away from Torah study and shul commitments?

Some may look forward to these possibilities and may or may not be joking when they say, “All of those things are a blessing! Ha ha!”

Nitzavim is read before Rosh Hashana to remind us that the choice we are making is not just to ask G-d to allow us to survive until next Rosh Hashana. We are actively choosing to live a holy existence, in which we are committed not just to achieving “life and good” but to avoiding the stagnation that comes with choosing a life that is spiritually dead.

In this light, “death and bad” might not be a curse or punishment from G-d. But as a choice of how to live, it holds no redeeming qualities.