Cross-posted from jspot
It is ironic that, within this week’s double parashah (Nitzavim-Vayelekh), we find both God’s exhortation to “choose life” and Moses’ announcement of his impending death. In one moment, God promises the Jewish people that the rejection of idol worship and the observance of mitzvot will guarantee life; in the next, the people must come to terms with the news that Moses—the very man who led the people into a renewed relationship with God—will not survive to guide them to the promised land.
Perhaps taking to heart the commandment to “choose life,” Moses himself fights his imminent death. Within the Torah text itself, Moses pleads with God to allow him to enter the land of Israel. The midrash goes even further in imagining Moses’ resistance to death. In a fairly astonishing series of texts, Devarim Rabbah (a homiletic collection that comprises the largest body of midrash on the book of Deuteronomy) pictures Moses launching a valiant fight to save his own life. In the course of this effort, Moses prays so powerfully that God must bolt all of the gates of heaven lest Moses’ supplications overturn the divine decree; the archangels Gabriel and Mikhael refuse to play any part in causing Moses’ death; Moses successfully fends off the Angel of Death’s attempt to take his life; and, finally, Moses succumbs to a kiss of death from God. The midrash concludes with the assertion that Moses has been guaranteed eternal life in the world to come.
The Talmud comments that the righteous are considered to be alive even after their deaths, whereas the wicked are considered to be dead, even during their lifetimes. (B’rakhot 18b) This observation reflects the distinction, made in parashat Nitzavim between those who spend their lives engaged in idol worship—defined here as the fetishization of objects—and those who follow the divine path. The first group of people, in their pursuit of material gain, effectively miss out on life; the latter group is more likely to achieve eternal life.
When Moses fights for his life, what he is fighting for is perhaps not continued physical existence, but rather, an assurance that his life has been well-lived, as well as a promise of symbolic eternal life. Moses will not succumb to an ordinary death by the hand of the Angel of Death, but instead holds out for the “kiss” that will eternally bind his life to that of the Divine. Similarly, when God commands us to “choose life,” the expectation is not that any of us will succeed in vanquishing illness and old age. Rather, God asks us to choose a life infused with divinity, rather than falling victim to “death in life,” characterized by the worship of idols.
We are about to enter the Yamim Nora’im—the High Holidays—when we come face-to-face with our own mortality. On Yom Kippur, we don white robes that evoke the shrouds in which Jews are buried; and refrain from eating, drinking, having sex, or otherwise giving in to the desires that characterize physical life. These visible symbols of death, coupled with the liturgical reminders of our own mortality, temporarily suspend us in a limbo between life and death. In this moment, we have the power to choose either life or death. We can give in to the reality of our mortality, and choose to live life as though we are already dead, or we can push away death and begin living in such a way as to guarantee us life even after death.
In the last few years, we have been reminded far too many times of our own mortality. In the last two weeks, we commemorated the anniversaries both of Hurricane Katrina and of September 11, two events that forced Americans to realize how fragile our lives really are. In the face of so much death and destruction, it is easy to give up hope in any real future, and to live a life focused only on our own survival. The biblical text, however, challenges us to choose a life filled with divinity. In such a life, we, like Moses, confront our own mortality and respond by recommitting ourselves to living in such a way as to guarantee us life, even after our deaths.
For those of us at the Jewish Funds for Justice, such a choice involves investing in the redevelopment in New Orleans, even when some people have given up hope on the city; supporting grassroots organizing, even when the opposing powers seem to big to fight; and creating a Jewish community committed to social justice, even when many clamor for our communal attention to be directed only inward.
The choice is ours: we can allow gloomy predictions and perceived threats to persuade us to live as though we were already dead; or we cane re-commit ourselves to the justice work through which we may continue to have an impact, even after our deaths.