Choose Life

In Deuteronomy 30:19, ha kadosh baruch hu says, "I call this day upon heaven and earth as witnesses. I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life." A religious person might read the words "life" and "blessing" as refering to Torah and Mitzvot, and "death" and "curse" as referring to doing sins to disconnecting oneself from Torah and Mitzvot.

Chassidus teaches us that life and death, blessing and curse, are not two separate entities from which we must choose. But in fact the Torah is telling us something much deeper: that everything in existence has life and death in it. The external of something is the death of that thing, and the internal of something is the life of it.

Judaism is not something we do. It's who we are and the Torah and Mitzvot connect us to that innermost part of ourselves. Choose life, L'shalom.