In Parashat Nitzavim, the Torah presents us with one of its most direct and enduring teachings: life is a choice.

“See: today I have placed before you life and good, death and evil.”
Devarim 30:15

At the conclusion of Nitzavim, as the Torah prepares to move into Vayelech, it returns to this message in greater detail:

“I have placed life and death before you, blessing and curse. Choose life, so that you and your descendants may live, by loving G-d, listening to His voice, and cleaving to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days.”
Devarim 30:19-20

Choosing Life Is Choosing Our Mission

We often think about life in terms of what we hope to receive: fulfillment, happiness, comfort, recognition, or the realization of the future we imagine for ourselves.

The Torah offers a deeper perspective. Life is not only about whether our circumstances match our expectations. It is also about the mission entrusted to us and what we are here to express.

To choose life is to choose the Divine goodness that seeks expression through us. It is to ask not only, “What will life give me?” but also, “What is life asking me to give?”

Becoming People Who Keep Moving

This idea connects Nitzavim with Vayelech. The word Vayelech speaks of movement, of going forward. We are meant to be mehalchim, people who continue to grow from one level to the next.

As the years pass, we become older. The spiritual invitation is to become wiser as well: not to remain where we were thirty years ago, last year, or even yesterday, but to respond anew to the choice placed before us in every moment.

Life continually asks us to choose it.

From Receiving to Giving

There is a story of a brilliant scholar who knew the entire Talmud by heart, yet remained deeply unhappy. He came to the Alter Rebbe seeking a blessing and clarity about his purpose.

The Alter Rebbe redirected his question: stop thinking about what you are meant to receive, and begin thinking about what you are meant to give.

This shift from receiving to giving opened a new way of understanding his life. Knowledge and accomplishment alone had not brought contentment. Purpose emerged when he began considering what G-d expected from him and what he could offer.

Preparing for a New Year

We read Nitzavim before Rosh Hashanah, when we ask to be inscribed for a good year and for life. The Torah teaches that our request for life is joined to our own choice of life.

As a new year approaches, with new experiences, new opportunities, and new possibilities for goodness, we can prepare by asking:

What am I here to give?

When we choose goodness, responsibility, growth, and contribution, we do more than seek life. We become an expression of life itself.

Listen to the full teaching on Spotify:
Choose Life on Spotify