By Rabbi Dr. Yaakov Abramovitz

Our lives – and the lives of our children – depend on it

After describing the choice between “life and good” and “death and evil,” Moshe urges the Jewish people, “U’vacharta ba’chayim – choose life” (Devarim 30:19). But why is that necessary? Who, if given the choice, would choose death over life, curse over blessing?

Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l explained that the pasuk is not speaking about physical life and death, but about two very different ways of living a Torah life. One is an observance full of “life” – a Judaism infused with joy, where every mitzvah is experienced as a privilege and every opportunity to serve Hashem is a blessing. The other is a Torah life that feels “dead,” weighed down by obligations that are experienced as burdens and “curses.” Both people keep the same mitzvos. The difference is not what they do, but how they live it.

Moshe Rabbeinu is teaching that every Jew faces this choice. We can live a life of Torah that feels vibrant and alive, or one that feels heavy and joyless. “Choose life,” he implores us.

Rav Moshe added that the way we experience mitzvos has an especially profound effect on our children. He pointed to the experience of many Jewish immigrants who came to America. They sacrificed enormously to remain faithful to Shabbos, often losing one job after another because they refused to work on Saturday. Yet, when their children grew up in an America where there was far less pressure to violate Shabbos, many abandoned it willingly. How could children who witnessed such extraordinary mesirus nefesh walk away from the very values their parents had sacrificed so much to preserve? Rav Moshe explained that too often those sacrifices were accompanied by a constant refrain: “Es is shver tzu zayn a Yid – it is hard to be a Jew.” Their children certainly saw the commitment, but they also absorbed the attitude. They concluded that Torah was a burden their parents chose to endure, not a life they themselves wanted to embrace.

This, Rav Moshe explained, is why the pasuk continues, “Choose life…so that you and your children shall live.” The greatest gift we can pass on to our children is not only commitment to mitzvos, but the sense that living as a Jew is a blessing. When they see parents who genuinely cherish Shabbos, who speak positively about mitzvos, and who convey that serving Hashem fills their lives with meaning and joy, they are far more likely to want that life for themselves. In that way, your children, too, will truly live. As we take stock on the final Shabbos of the year, now is a wonderful opportunity to recalibrate our mindset before a new beginning. If we haven’t before, now is the time to choose life. As we put away our phones before Shabbos, talk about the expense and preparation for Yom Tov, or spend long hours in shul: our children are watching. Will they observe the burden of reluctance, resentment, and cynicism, or the vibrancy of pride, satisfaction, and commitment?

It’s an easy decision.