Making
Decisions: The Key
To Life In Jewish Beliefs
I want to show you something I picked up on as I
was reading the Torah this past week. It's an idea that's central in Jewish
beliefs and it requires a bit of thought. If I were you, I'd
get a cup of coffee and sit down because this is a little longer than
usual. But I think it's worth taking the time because it's not at all
theoretical - I'm going to challenge you in a very practical way!
Abraham, we're told, reached the ripe old age of
175 before he passed away fulfilled and satisfied.
Read carefully how his age is recorded and you'll
notice that it says: (in literal translation from Hebrew) "And these
are the years of Abraham's life that he lived,
one hundred etc...."
What's with the superfluous "that he
lived" in that sentence? Compare it to the way it records
the life of Yishmael his son a few lines later, where it simply states
"...the years of Yishmael's life, one hundred years etc..." It doesn't
need to add "that he lived" because it's obvious. So why add it above
for Abraham?
I think the reason it adds this
phrase is to emphasise a quality of Abraham that transformed his life
from a passive existence to a dynamic and active form of living.
What I mean is this:
For many people
life is something that happens to them, like an epic
play that on occasions captivates them and at other times allows them
to doze off. Or perhaps like an interactive adventure game where the
elements of the story are written and just every now and then you need
to decide whether to go this way or that!
Yes, that's still called a
life, but it's not true living. Apparently, Avraham lived his life in a
totally active way, so much so that the Torah emphasises that quality
in it's summary of his life. But what is this quality and how do we
identify it? If it's important for us to know this, that's because we
can do it too, and so we should. I want to know what it
is and how to do it.
Can we look at Abraham's life
and point at something and say "aha - this is really living"? Are there
any pointers to help us solve the puzzle? I think there are two such
clues and when we put them together we get a sharp and clear picture of
what it is that separates the living from the merely existing.
The first clue is that the
Torah actually gives Abraham the nickname ha-ivri
which emphasises the fact that the man spent his entire life in a
contrary stance to the rest of the world! The word Hebrew - ivri
simply means "on the other side". So if we wanted to characterise
Abraham as a unique person, we'd point to the fact that he was a total
rebel, a heretic with respect to the received wisdom of his generation.
So is that what it takes? If
I really want to "live" life, do I need to be a rebel? Do I have to
take a stand against the world in order to be really alive? Well, there
is something to this but it's not enough. Just being a rebel for the
sake of it is too negative to make into a life's mission.
Come with me and we'll dig a
little deeper...
Later, actually almost at the
end of the Torah, Moses calls the Heavens and the Earth to witness his
final few words to the Jewish people. There, on the Plains of Moab,
with Israel in sight but forever out of reach for Moses, he offers a
challenge that cuts to the core of what it means to live in an active
way.
"Life and Death I've put in
front of you, Blessing and Curse. Choose life, so that
you'll live, both you and your descendents, to love God,
listen to His voice and stick with Him."
Now I have to point out that
this is strange, how this is ordered. Surely it would make more sense
to tell you to choose life, love God etc., so that you and your
descendents will live.
No, it's so
exact that it's thrilling in it's implication: In order for you to just
live in a way that makes it even possible to reach the heights
described here, you have to choose to live!
And I don't mean that you
have to make a conscious decision to live rather than die - no - what I
mean is that the act of choosing, of consciously deciding between
different options, is the definition of being alive in an active way.
You have to become aware of
your independence of your circumstances and pinpoint the interface
between what happens to you and what you're going to do about it. When
you do that, and to the extent that you do it, you're alive, and you
might be able to achieve immense things.
No, actually
you will achieve immense things!
When
you're not doing this, and your life is just an aggregate of the forces
that are affecting you from the outside, then you're really just
"there", like a piece of furniture.
So
back to Abraham. He was alive in the true sense of the word. His
"heresy" and opposition to the corruption of his world were definitely
the vital signs that he was truly alive, but what made those things
possible was the fact that he spent his life making choices. He
recognised that he was the driver, and that his circumstances only
served to mark out the terrain.
So
what about you? Are you driving or are you dozing in the passenger
seat? Are you alive...
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