Behold, I have set before you today life and good, and death and evil.

(Deuteronomy 30:15)
Elul 27, 5775/September 11, 2015

"Behold, I have set before you today life and good, and death and evil." (Deut. 30:15)

"I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse." (ibid 30:19)

In his final day on this earth, Moshe rabbenu (Moses our master) is summarizing for his people the entire breadth and depth of Torah, the entirety of its message and teaching in a few short but immensely profound words and phrases. The children of Israel are about to enter the promised land of Canaan. This is their ancestral homeland, the land ofAvraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov. Moshe, who won't be joining his people in crossing the river, wants to be certain that they have a clear understanding of the undertaking that lies before them. Not merely the conquest and settling of the land, but, more importantly, the establishment of a Torah society, a civilization whose compass and centerpoint, whose lodestone and north star is the holy Torah whose words Israel embraced and swore allegiance to even as they heard the very first "I am HaShem your G-d" thunder forth at Sinai. (Exodus 24:7)

Moshe has stressed the closeness and accessibility of Torah, ("not in heaven" Deut. 30:12), and its do-ability, ("it is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can fulfill it" ibid 30:14). Now, by listing the stark opposites which will vie for Israel's heart, "life and good" as opposed to "death and evil," "the blessing" as opposed to "the curse," he is reminding Israel that the entire Torah, its promise and potential to change man and transform man's world, is dependent on the very gift G-d instilled in man's very essence: free will: the ability to choose.

In fact, the scene before us of Moshe in his last day speaking to Israel is profoundly reminiscent of G-d's words and warnings to Adam on his first (and only) day in the Garden of Eden: "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth... " "Behold, I have given you every seed bearing herb... and every tree that has seed bearing fruit; it will be yours for food." (Genesis 1:28-29) These blessings are the very blessings that await Israel across the river. And then comes G-d's warning, "But of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat of it, for on the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die." (ibid 2:17) The choice has been ours since the creation of Adam. (Today we mark this day as Rosh HaShana, the first day of the year, the first day of Adam and all his subsequent generations.)

Inasmuch as Moshe is reiterating G-d's warning to Adam, he is not introducing anything new in his message to Israel. But that is precisely why Moshe's message is so essential: Israel must get it right this time. So concerned is Moshe that Israel does not blunder asAdam did that the next words which come from his mouth are nothing less than what we would refer to today as "insider's information": "You shall choose life, so that you and your offspring will live." (Deut. 30:19) First Moshe placed before us the choices which will confront us: life, death, good, evil, curse and blessing. And then Moshe whispers in our ear: "Choose life!"

It seems so obvious, but is it? Today death, evil and curse seem to be the choice of millions of the descendants of Adam. Did someone fail to whisper in their ear? Or do they fear Israel's historic reentry into the land of Israel and all the good that this prophecy fulfilled promises? Is their choice for death a desperate attempt to keep the soles of Israel's feet off the Temple Mount, the place of the Holy Temple, the place of the altar, the place of the creation of man from the dust of the earth?

"Choose life!" This commandment is one to keep in our hearts and on our lips as we bring in a new year, one, we pray, in which good news will betide all of G-d's children. "Choose life!" Pass it along!

-The Temple Institute