01 Sep PARSHA IN PRACTICE: SKILLS FOR BETTER LIVING NITZAVIM – AN EASY DECISION

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.