וּבָחַרְתָּ בַּחַיִּים לְמַעַן תִּחְיֶה אַתָּה וְזַרְעֶךָ
“...choose life, so that you and your children may live.”
— Deuteronomy 30:19
This verse, read during this season of reflection, reminds us of the power of intentional decision-making. When we align our financial choices with our values, we live with greater purpose—and shape a more lasting legacy.
As we approach the Jewish High Holy Day season, we are offered an important opportunity to reflect on our lives, our values, and the choices we made over the past year. The Torah teaches that God put before us a series of choices in a verse read around this time each year:
“…I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse. [You shall] choose life—so that you and your children may live.” (Deuteronomy 30:19)
We are given a choice, and we are told which is the better option. The Torah continues in the next verse to teach us that our offspring will live on by loving God, heeding God’s voice, and holding fast to God (ibid. 30:20). But what does that really mean?
Rashi, the 11th Century French commentator, explains the verse in the following way:
“Choose life. I show you these [options] in order that you may choose the portion of life. It is like a parent who says to their child, ‘Choose for yourself a good portion of my real estate,’ and sets him in the best portion saying to him, ‘Choose this!’
Sometimes even when a choice is set before us, we need to be shown which is the better path to choose. That is the value we know as education. Otherwise, what ultimately would happen is that we would live life as if it were a television game show—always guessing if “Door A” or “Door B” will lead to the preferable outcome.
Now for those of us that prefer not to use “God language”, I offer the following thought: What God represents in Deuteronomy 30:20 doesn’t have to be a religious deity. I would propose that the core of the message is to identify one’s core values, stick to those values, and then pass them on (like the parent in Rashi’s commentary). For, as Rabbi Vernon Kurtz, with whom I served North Suburban Synagogue Beth El in the Chicago suburbs for a number of years, used to say, “If you don’t stand for something, you stand for nothing.” That’s as true for an individual or a family as it is for an institution. And it’s a very challenging mantra to live by. However, one who lives by it, and whose moral compass points in the right direction, will always rest assured that they are choosing life and that their legacy lives on.
As we reach the High Holy Day season, I pray that each of us should be inscribed in the Book of Life for another year of goodness, love, good health, and success in all of our worthy endeavors. May we know peace in Israel and around the world, and may all of our hostages and soldiers return safely to Israel.