Rabbi Marc D. Rudolph

In our Torah reading for this week, Moses tells the Israelites, “I place before you today life and goodness, death and evil” (Deuteronomy 30:15). The rabbis ask a question: Does this mean that Moses is giving the people a choice, and that they are free to choose death and evil over life and goodness? That it does not matter to Moses or to God which path people choose? Four verses down (Deuteronomy 30:19) the answer becomes clear. Moses counsels the people to “choose life”.

The Hebrew of the text reads בחרת בחיים, literally, “choose in life.” That is, every life-affirming action that we take in our lives can increase the good that is in the world.  At the same time, there are actions we can take in our lives that can be a curse and lead to destruction. But it is not as simple as that! We live in an imperfect world. We are all flawed. Each human being contains a mixture of good and evil. We have tendencies in both directions. Because we are imperfect, every action we take is a mixture of good and bad, life affirming and life diminishing, at the same time. Our goal in life is to live consciously, to be aware of the impact, both positive and negative, of our actions on our lives and on our world. It is our responsibility to shape our behavior toward choosing and maximizing the impact of our actions toward the affirmation of life.

As we approach the Jewish New Year, let us examine our behavior and actions for both the good we do — our life affirming choices — and the inevitable downside of those very choices. We can examine our deeds, repent of our transgressions, and resolve to rebalance our behaviors to make more life affirming choices and reduce the destruction our actions bring to the world. We can all become conscious of both the positive and the negative impact of our actions on ourselves, our loved ones, our neighbors and our planet.

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