Why Does the Torah Tell Us to Choose Life?

Parshat Nitzavim Vayelech brings the forty years in the wilderness to a close. The focus is no longer on the past, but on the future and the new generation preparing to enter the Land of Israel. Moshe already knows that he will not cross the Jordan, and the entire nation knows it as well.

From this point forward, the Jewish people will have to live without the miracles of the wilderness and without Moshe constantly standing between them and the word of Hashem. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch reads these two Torah portions as a single unit addressing a fundamental question: How can the Torah remain a living force when one generation replaces another, circumstances change, the nation is exiled and eventually returns to its land, and its great leader is no longer present?

A Covenant With Every Jew

The parsha begins: "You are standing today, all of you, before Hashem your God: the heads of your tribes, your elders and your officers, every man of Israel; your children, your wives, and the stranger who is in your camp... to enter into the covenant of Hashem your God."

The covenant is not made with one particular segment of the nation. The tribal leaders stand alongside the woodcutter and the water carrier, the elders alongside the children, and the leaders alongside the ordinary person.

A person's position within society may change, but his place within the covenant does not depend on his status. The Torah is not the possession of an educated elite or a priestly family. It stands before "every man of Israel."

A Covenant That Includes Future Generations

Immediately afterward, the Torah extends the covenant beyond those physically standing in the plains of Moab:

"Not with you alone do I make this covenant... but with whoever is here with us, standing today before Hashem our God, and with whoever is not here with us today."

Here we encounter one of the central principles in Rabbi Hirsch's thought. The Torah is not a contract that was signed once between Hashem and one particular generation. It defines the historical mission and identity of the Jewish people throughout the generations.

Moshe can therefore address even those who have not yet been born. Future generations do not receive a new Torah. They enter into a covenant that has already established the framework of their national existence.

Exile Is Not the End of the Covenant

This covenant does not promise that the Jewish people will never fail. On the contrary.

Chapter 30 begins after a detailed description of blessing and curse, exile and dispersion: "And it shall be, when all these things come upon you... and you take it to heart among all the nations where Hashem your God has driven you."

Only after the nation actually experiences what the Torah has described, blessing when it remains faithful to the Torah and the opposite when it turns away, will it be able to look back on the path it has traveled and understand its history in a new way.

As Rabbi Hirsch explains, the Jewish people will then bring the sum of their experiences, the experiences of their journey through history, into their hearts. At that point, the true return of the Jewish people will begin.

Why Must We Be Told to Choose Life?

The Torah then arrives at one of the central verses of the parsha: "See, I have placed before you today life and good, death and evil."

A few verses later comes the command: "Choose life, so that you and your descendants may live."

At first glance, there is an obvious question: Why does a person need to be commanded to choose life?

Rabbi Hirsch explains that the "life" described by the Torah does not mean biological existence alone. A person can exist for many years without ever consciously deciding what to do with that existence.

The life the Torah is describing requires a decision. As Rabbi Hirsch explains, a person does not attain "life" without thought, intention, and conscious choice. You must choose life if you truly wish to live.

The Torah places two possible paths before us within the realities of everyday life and demands that we consciously decide which one will become our path.

No One Can Choose for You

The covenant does not eliminate personal responsibility. The fact that a person's ancestors stood at Sinai or in the plains of Moab cannot make the choice for him. Every generation inherits the covenant, but every individual must decide whether to bring that covenant to life through his own actions.

This is the meaning of "choose life." Jewish identity may be inherited, but living according to that identity requires a choice.

Moshe Goes to the People

Parshat Vayelech marks a transition: "And Moshe went and spoke these words to all Israel."

The Torah does not say that the people assembled before Moshe. Instead, Moshe goes to them.

Until now, Moshe had spoken in the name of Hashem as the messenger who brought the Torah to the people, and the nation therefore assembled before him. Now his mission as the transmitter of the commandments has reached its conclusion. He is about to speak about his departure and his death.

For this reason, he does not summon the nation to him as a leader issuing instructions in Hashem's name, but he goes to them. As Rabbi Hirsch explains, he did not gather the nation around himself. Rather, "Vayelech," he went to the people in order to take his leave of them.

This moment highlights the simplicity and humility of the man whom the Torah describes as the humblest of all people.

Moshe does not use his final moments to magnify his own importance. Once his mission has been completed, he returns to being a man who walks among his brothers to say goodbye.

The leader is leaving, but the Torah he transmitted will remain.

Hakhel: Renewing the Covenant

The covenant established in the plains of Moab must continue to be renewed over time. Moshe commands that the Torah be written and given "to the Kohanim, the sons of Levi... and to all the elders of Israel."

Once every seven years, during Sukkot following the Shemittah year, the entire nation is called together to hear the Torah: "The men, the women, the children, and the stranger who is within your gates."

The mitzvah of Hakhel is not a substitute for regular Torah study. If its purpose were simply to teach people information, a public reading once every seven years would accomplish very little. Torah must be studied every day and in every Jewish home.

Hakhel serves a different purpose. It brings the entire nation back before the Torah as a national covenant.

Returning to Everyday Life

The timing of Hakhel is precise.

The Shemittah year has just ended. People are returning to agriculture, commerce, work, and the demands of earning a livelihood. Sukkot reminds them of the period when the Jewish people lived in the wilderness without fields or commerce.

It is precisely as people return to economic life that the entire nation gathers to hear once again what must stand at the center of that life.

As Rabbi Hirsch explains, the path to the Torah is the path that leads to Hashem, and the Torah is the condition for the unity of the nation.

This is why women and children must also attend Hakhel. Even a child who cannot yet understand the details of what is being taught receives something from the experience itself. The child sees an entire nation standing together and listening to the Torah with reverence.

In this way, the past of the Jewish people, beginning with the Exodus from Egypt and the covenant at Sinai, is connected to their distant future. Each generation receives the same covenant, but each generation must choose to make it its own.