CHOCHMAS NASHIM:NITZAVIM VAYELECH: COMING AND GOING
By: Suri Davis
Every Rosh Chodesh we sing G-d’s praises while reciting Hallel, Psalms of gratitude to G-d.
One verse we sing is “the dead do not praise G-d.” We ask G-d to keep us alive so that we may praise Him.
At the end of the first of our Torah portions this week, Nitzavim, Moses tells the Jews, Deuteronomy 30:19: “I invoke heaven and earth today as witnesses, I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse, you should choose life, in order for you and your offspring will live. To love G-d, your G-d, to obey Him, and to cleave to Him, for He is your life and the source of your length of days to dwell in the land that G-d swore to your forefathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that He would give them.”
Choose life so that you may live. One can only live if one chooses life, what is the point being made here? We can live forever. I write often of taking stock every so often of what our legacy will be on earth.
As an estate attorney for 30 years, I work with my clients to define life and quality of life. We have a choice of how we want to live life, tempered by the opportunities and challenges and obstacles G-d gives us and puts in our daily paths.
Our legacy as Jews is very different from those who are not Jewish, as one can see by reading the New York Times Obituary section, and the Jewish newspaper sections, but both, tellingly, end with a listing of family members who survived the deceased.
What have we passed on to our next generation. Our we nitzavim, standing in our growth in torah and mitzvoth or our we vayelech, do we march towards G-d in our love and dedication to Him. Do we live so we can cleave to G-d, so that what we hand off to the next generation is not only material wealth, but more importantly, spiritual wealth, directly passing forth the benefit of past mitzvoth/good deeds and also conveying to the next generation that our priority was to cleave to G-d, for He is our “life and the source of our length of days.” Our days are meaningless with material pursuit as we see in this week’s stock market downturn, but our spiritual pursuits enrich our current lives, are revealed to the next generation so that they might continue the path of torah, and of course accompany us as merits in the world to come. Today’s spiritual activity is merit for eternity.
All of this so that we might live in the land that G-d promised to us, Israel. Since the pandemic started, Israel shut its borders. It is extremely difficult for anyone to enter the country, even those who are Israeli citizens and those who have homes there. A friend of mine received permission to to to Israel with her family this week, after weeks of trying to figure out the red tape. Jfk and Ben Gurion were empty, stores shuttered close, not a bottle of water to be found. When she arrived there were ten checkpoints to pass to ensure that those coming in were permitted in and were healthy.
I ask you, when in the history of the State of Israel, has Israel closed the borders to Jews…how we have taken Israel travel for granted. Israel is now filled with its people, those who had faith to call it home. Even the foreign students are not permitted in public Israel spots. We can no longer take Israel travel for granted, and Israel itself for granted, oh how we yearn to return to our Israel commutes and pursuits. Maybe this will awaken in us the yearning burning desire to be able to call Israel home.
As we prepare for the high holy days, we can start to feel the powerful urgency behind the words “next year in Jerusalem.” For that we don’t merely need to exist, we need to choose life, making G-d the center of our lives, so that we can build an eternal legacy here in earth, to make it hospitable for G-d to return and rest his spirit/schinah in Israel, Jerusalem and the holy temple to be rebuilt, hopefully speedily in our days.
Good Shabbos.
-Suri