Torah Portion: Nitzavim/Vayeilech, Deuteronomy 29:9-31:30

I know that everybody laughs when I say it, but this week's portion is truly my favorite portion!  When rabbinic students are ordained we are allowed to select a verse from Jewish tradition for our ordination books, and I selected a verse from this week's portion:  "I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse.  Choose life... by loving the Lord your God" (Deut. 31:19-20).  These words have particular resonance this time of year because they are also our Torah reading for Yom Kippur.  They contain a potent and challenging message.  Life is filled with things we label as "blessings" - good health, happy marriages, special friends, successful careers, and delightful children.  Life is also filled with things we label as "curses" - debilitating illness or accidents, financial loss, horrible natural disasters.  Can we really CHOOSE what comes in to our life?  Sometimes we can, but more often than not life throws curveballs at us and all we can do is duck.  Yet our Torah portion still contains the message to choose, to choose life.  What does this mean?

I think the answer comes from one of the main messages of the High Holy Days, the teachings about t'shuvah.  This word is usually translated at "repentance," but actually means, "return".  Life throws curveballs at us, and it throws us off course.  We get angry, or depressed, or we lose faith.  These are all normal responses to life's curveballs or hardballs.  But the holidays invite us to choose to RETURN, to choose t'shuvah.  This is not so different from choosing life.  We return to who we truly are, our highest selves.  We return to an outlook filled with faith and hope instead of despair and loss.  We return to God, to loving God and God's ways.  While this can be a difficult and painful process, it always - ALWAYS - begins with a choice.  This is why the Torah portion means so much to me.  Hope or cynicism? Anger or peace? A life filled with community or lived alone?  It all begins with a choice - one that is all yours to make.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Annie