August 13, 2023|כ"ו אב ה' אלפים תשפ"ג The Mindset of Choice By Rabbi Jonathan Muskat

Here is my question that I would like you all to ponder. Let’s say your young child is misbehaving. He’s screaming non-stop and you want him to stop. So you tell the child, “I am giving you a choice. You can either stop screaming and I will give you a treat or you can continue screaming and I will send you to your room.” What do you think your child will say? I know what he will say. “What kind of treat?” If you give your child a choice between a treat and a time out in his room, it’s not really a choice. Hopefully, the child will choose the treat if he’s thinking rationally. But is that really a choice? Similarly, if you walk up to someone and say, “You can choose a precious jewel that is in my left hand or you can drink a bottle of poison that is in my right hand,” is that a real choice? Is choosing between instant riches and death a real choice? 

 

But isn’t that how our parsha begins? Moshe tells usרְאֵ֗ה אָנֹכִ֛י נֹתֵ֥ן לִפְנֵיכֶ֖ם הַיּ֑וֹם בְּרָכָ֖ה וּקְלָלָֽה – see this day I have set before you a blessing and curse. You have a choice, a real choice, between a blessing and a curse. Is that a real choice? Why does Moshe formulate his speech in this matter? Why not simply say if you observe the mitzvot then you will be rewarded and if you fail to do so then you will be punished? Why say, “See, I am giving you two legitimate options, a blessing and curse, and you can choose,” when we know that it’s not really a choice? 

 

What’s fascinating is that God does the same thing. After Moshe tells us to destroy idols and all forms of pagan worship when we conquer the land of Israel, he says:לֹֽא־תַעֲשׂ֣וּן כֵּ֔ן לַה׳ אֱ–לֹהֵיכֶֽם  - you will act differently with God. כִּ֠י אִֽם־אֶל־הַמָּק֞וֹם אֲשֶׁר־יִבְחַ֨ר ה׳ אֱ–לֹֽהֵיכֶם֙ מִכׇּל־שִׁבְטֵיכֶ֔ם לָשׂ֥וּם אֶת־שְׁמ֖וֹ שָׁ֑ם לְשִׁכְנ֥וֹ תִדְרְשׁ֖וּ וּבָ֥אתָ שָּֽׁמָּה - the site that God picks amongst all your tribes to establish His name – there you are to go. וַהֲבֵאתֶ֣ם שָׁ֗מָּה עֹלֹֽתֵיכֶם֙ וְזִבְחֵיכֶ֔ם וְאֵת֙ מַעְשְׂרֹ֣תֵיכֶ֔ם וְאֵ֖ת תְּרוּמַ֣ת יֶדְכֶ֑ם וְנִדְרֵיכֶם֙ וְנִדְבֹ֣תֵיכֶ֔ם וּבְכֹרֹ֥ת בְּקַרְכֶ֖ם וְצֹאנְכֶֽם – and there you will bring all your sacrifices and tithes and teruma and voluntary offerings. All of your ritual offerings will be brought to the place that God chooses.

 

I can imagine all the people gathering around Moshe and listening to this speech and one person pipes up and asks, “Well, where exactly will this place be? Where should we bring our sacrifices?” And Moshe responds,  הַמָּק֞וֹם אֲשֶׁר־יִבְחַ֨ר ה׳ אֱ–לֹֽהֵיכֶם- “What do you mean? You will bring your sacrifices in the place that God chooses.” And then another guy pipes up and says, “Yeah, but where is this place? Which place did God choose? Tel Aviv? Eilat? Petach Tikvah? Where exactly should we offer our sacrifices?” And Moshe repeats himself, “God will choose.” And maybe another guy says, “Yeah, I think the place of the akedah is a good place for our sacrifices. That’s where our ancestor Avraham offered up Yitzchak. Moshe, can you do me a favor. Maybe you can ask God if we can bring our sacrifices there?” And another guy says, “I remember there was this place called Shalem in Avraham’s time and the high priest Malkitzedek was from this town. Maybe that can be the place where we bring our sacrifices?” And you can picture by now Moshe getting really annoyed and he tells them, “God will choose the place.” Moshe refuses to tell them the identity of the future spiritual center of the Jewish people. I wonder, does Moshe himself know the identity of this place or not? Additionally, Moshe’s response of הַמָּק֞וֹם אֲשֶׁר־יִבְחַ֨ר ה׳, the place that God chooses, is used to describe the place where we will bring our sacrifices, where we will eat maaser sheni, where we will make aliya la-regel, our three times per year pilgrimage, where the seat of the high court will be, where the service of the Leviim will be and where we will bring our first fruits and firstborn animals. The identity of the spiritualcenter of the Jewish people remains hidden from the people. If Moshe knows the identity of this place, he takes it with him to his grave. It is simply the place that God will choose. But I wonder why. Why is that? Why does God not disclose to His people the identity of the future spiritual center of the Jewish people?

 

There are a whole host of answers to this question. In the Moreh Nevuchim, the Guide to the Perplexed, the Rambam provides three reasons. First, if God would have told us the identity of this place, then the other nations would find out and they would fight more fiercely to hold onto this city. Think about the current international fight over the status of Jerusalem! Secondly, maybe the other nations, upon discovering the identity of this spiritual center, would ravage and destroy this city. Finally, maybe if the Jewish people would discover the identity of this spiritual center, each tribe would demand that this place be within their allotted portion and they would seek to conquer it. To prevent infighting at this time, God deferred announcing the location of this holy city until later on. Sometimes it may not be wise to make major decisions affecting the Jewish people in Israel without a consensus. But I digress.

 

The Chizkuni suggests that when Moshe says הַמָּק֞וֹם אֲשֶׁר־יִבְחַ֨ר ה׳, maybe Moshe here is not referring to Yerushalayim as the place that God will choose. God did not specify one place because there were other spiritual centers of the Jewish people before Yerushalayim, namely Gilgal, Shilo, Nov and Givon. That’s why one place is not specified – because there were many places. The Meshech Chochmah suggests that the Torah didn’t mention Yerushalayim here to emphasize that no place has inherent holiness. Our spiritual center will be a city that God chooses. It will be a consequence of God’s choice, but it is not inherently holy.

 

Perhaps, though, the language that Moshe uses of הַמָּק֞וֹם אֲשֶׁר־יִבְחַ֨ר ה׳  conveys to us something else. Maybe it conveys to us the power of choice. God already knew that the city of Yerushalayim would be the spiritual center, maybe since the days of Avraham Avinu when he was willing to offer Yitzchak as a sacrifice at the akeda. Moshe’s point is that even though Yerushalayim will definitely be the spiritual center of the Jewish people, God will still choose it. What does it mean to choose something that is already decided? It sounds like one of those fake job postings that you open up for everyone just for show because you already have your candidate, but for legal reasons you need to make it appear that there is a choice, when in reality there is no choice. Is that what God did? He invites all the cities to try out for spiritual center of the Jewish people and He knows, though, who the winner will be? 

 

I think the point is that the way we view God’s relationship with us is that it’s not something that’s automatic. It’s not something that’s in the past. He didn’t just give us the Torah in the past or designate a certain homeland for us in the past. He is constantly in a relationship with us. The language of הַמָּק֞וֹם אֲשֶׁר־יִבְחַ֨ר ה׳ tells us that He is constantly choosing for us, now and in the future.

 

Now the fact that God is always choosing for us can be a very scary concept. What if He chooses one day to do something that we think is not for our benefit? To choose for us in the present and the future means to constantly re-evaluate and re-think prior decisions. That can be a very scary concept when it comes to God, but to constantly choose also means that God is constantly involved and engaged in our lives.

 

What is the ending of the bracha that we recite immediately before we recite the shema each and every day? We bless God “ha-bocher b’amo Yisrael b-ahava.” We bless God not for choosing us in the past. We bless God who chooses us in the present, constantly, with love. We bless God who is constantly involved and engaged in our lives and who is constantly reflecting, as it were, and we bless God who models for us how to live our lives in constant reflection and constant choices.

 

After all, isn’t that how our parsha begins? Moshe tells us that we have a choice, but not really. Moshe tells us  רְאֵ֗ה אָנֹכִ֛י נֹתֵ֥ן לִפְנֵיכֶ֖ם הַיּ֑וֹם בְּרָכָ֖ה וּקְלָלָֽה – see this day I have set before you a blessing and curse. You have a choice, a real choice, between a blessing and a curse. But that’s not a real choice. If it’s formulated in this way, choose a blessing or a curse, we will obviously choose the blessing. But what Moshe is really telling Bnei Yisrael is a mindset about how to live our lives. רְאֵ֗ה, see, reflect, be mindfully aware of your choices, constantly be reflective, and do not to live life on autopilot. When we approach our choices with mindfulness, even ones that seem obvious, like a blessing and a curse, then we create a space for authentic reflection, allowing us to perhaps consider changing the course of action that we have been following until now.

 

This week is Elul and the question is what does that mean for you? I know what it means. It means to please send in your high holiday seating requests. After all, the committee is working hard at seating so please help them out by responding in a timely fashion. It means to please make your Kol Nidrei pledges and please save the committee time and effort by reaching out to them so that they don’t have to reach out to you. Mind you, getting your high holiday seating requests and Kol Nidrei pledges are very important and we should do both of them in a timely fashion. But you know what else we should be doing? We should be thinking about teshuva, about changing our ways. Of course, that’s very hard. After all, why should we even think of bettering our lives? We are coasting. Many of us find ourselves in a good space and there’s no need to feel uncomfortable or to consider the possibility that we need to change. We have an illusion that just staying the course is the easiest way to go and then we miss so many opportunities for learning, connection and transformation and we arrive at the end of our lives wondering if we missed so many opportunities to make an even greater impact. Why? Because we are on autopilot.

 

Teshuva can be overwhelming, but God models for us how to take the first step. הַמָּק֞וֹם אֲשֶׁר־יִבְחַ֨ר ה׳  . God is constantly choosing, re-evaluating and reflecting. רְאֵ֗ה אָנֹכִ֛י נֹתֵ֥ן לִפְנֵיכֶ֖ם הַיּ֑וֹם בְּרָכָ֖ה וּקְלָלָֽה – see, this season, this upcoming month of Elul is a new opportunity to choose a blessing or a curse, to reflect on our values, aspirations and passions and embrace the potential for growth. Forget about mistakes that we may have made in the past. Every day is a new opportunity to turn to God and say that I know I may have been on autopilot in the past. However, now, I am ready to reflect. I am ready to choose. And I am ready to engage.