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Week 4: Response from
Rabbi Sandford Kopnick |
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Whether we are inscribed in the Book of Life for another year is deemed arbitrary by many who seek to understand God's role in their life's experience. And yet, through this week's text, we see the contrary. Miamonides's words are remincient of parashat Nitzavim, where we are commanded to choose life, that you and your offspring will live. And while the concept of life and death is the simple reference, digging deeper, there is more.
By choosing to follow God's ways, we choose life or to be alive spiritually. The fulfillment we receive from going through life aware of our choices and temptations, yet choosing wisely when we can, and taking account of our choices when we select poorly, makes life profoundly meaningful. The whole process is the active way of choosing life. Teshuvah is our way of continuing our sincere search for choosing well, without getting bogged down when we choose badly. As long as our intentions remain toward blessing and not curse, and our mistakes honest and not evil, we stand a chance for understanding how to deal with the fact that we know the difference between good and evil and continue to choose the good.
Sforono teaches us that our ability to know good and evil is a divine trait given us and that our mortality allows us to strive to know God and God's ways for were we not mortal, we would only seek fulfillment of our desires and cast aside all spiritual concepts and good deeds (comment on Genesis 3:22). As we prepare for our holy days, we rejoice in our mortality -- hoping that we choose the right way. When we don't, we regroup in order that we may choose again -- having learned from the experience.
The Valley Temple -- Cincinnati, Ohio |
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