Choose Life
“Choose life.” An Opening The Torah says: “See, I have placed before you today life and good, and death and evil… Choose life.” When you hear the word “choice,” what comes to mind? A crossroads. A big moment. A decision that changes your life. You stand there and weigh it. Then you choose. That is the classic picture. Maimonides, the great medieval sage, writes about it. He says a person chooses whether or not he wants to overpower his evil inclination, the inner voice that pulls us toward wrong. He also says the whole matter is in that person’s own hands. This is the kind of choice everyone knows. You act, you sign, you open a door. But there is a question here that people do not always ask. The Question What happens when you don’t choose? You sit. You wait. You put it off. You stay silent. What is that? Is it just “sitting and doing nothing”? Is it a neutral state, a short pause before the real choice arrives? Think of the young married man who complains every morning about how his day is set up but never changes it. Has he simply not chosen yet? Think of the person who says, “I’ll take care of it when I have time.” Is he just standing still? Putting things off feels like not deciding. It feels as if the choice is still ahead of us, waiting patiently. But the truth is completely different. Not Choosing Is the Choice Whatever you don’t change, you are choosing. The job you complain about every morning? You didn’t leave it today. You chose it again. The relationship you said you would fix “one day”? Your silence is your answer. The thing you keep putting off, again and again? The putting off is itself the decision. “Sitting and doing nothing” is not a way of avoiding a choice. It is the choice. It is a decision that was made: the decision not to decide. Our Sages already said: “Silence is like admission.” Silence, too, takes a position, and that position counts. What is true in Jewish law is even more true in the inner work of the soul. The World Does Not Stand Still Here a deeper point comes in. A person who is standing still imagines he is in balance. He is not going up, but he is not going down either. “I’m just standing here.” But spiritual reality is not built that way. The Tanya, the classic book of Hasidic thought, teaches this in its section of letters. It says that creation is renewed every single moment: “In His goodness He renews, every day and always, the work of creation.” Hashem does not stop. Time does not stop. A soul that is not moving upward is not standing still. It is drifting. Our Sages already said: “One who does not add, loses.” Whoever does not add is bound to lose. This is not a punishment. It is simply a description of how reality works. “Standing still” is a direction, and it has a name: going down. The Depth of “Choose Life” Now go back to the verse. “Choose life.” It does not say “choose once.” It does not say “choose when you reach the crossroads.” The verb is ongoing, in the present. Choose now, in this moment, and in every moment that will come. The world’s default setting is not neutral. When you are not choosing life, you are already on the other side. That is not because you fell. It is because “standing still” does not exist. The command “choose life” asks you to live in a constant state of choosing: choosing life, right now, in this moment. Our Sages warn in Ethics of the Fathers: “Do not say, ‘When I have free time, I will study,’ for perhaps you will never have free time.” The point is not that your time will surely run out. The point is that the “when I have time” is itself the choice not to choose, right now.
Putting It into Practice
Sit down for a moment. Not to rest, but to see clearly. Look at everything you “haven’t decided yet.” Recognize that you have decided. Now, with a clear mind, ask yourself: Is this the choice I want to make? If not, change it. If it is, choose it on purpose, and not through silence. The choice is made right now. Not tomorrow. Not “when I have time.” Choose life.
Questions and answers
Q: What does the Torah mean when it says "See, I have placed before you today life and good, and death and evil… Choose life"?
Rabbi Landau answers: The Torah says: “See, I have placed before you today life and good, and death and evil… Choose life.” When you hear the word “choice,” what comes to mind? A crossroads. A big moment. A decision that changes your life. You stand there and weigh it. Then you choose. That is the classic picture. Maimonides, the great medieval sage, writes about it. He says a person chooses whether or not he wants to overpower his evil inclination, the inner voice that pulls us toward wrong. He also says the whole matter is in that person’s own hands. This is the kind of choice everyone knows. You act, you sign, you open a door. But there is a question here that people do not always ask.
Q: What picture usually comes to mind when we hear the word "choice", and how does Maimonides describe free choice?
Rabbi Landau answers: The Torah says: “See, I have placed before you today life and good, and death and evil… Choose life.” When you hear the word “choice,” what comes to mind? A crossroads. A big moment. A decision that changes your life. You stand there and weigh it. Then you choose. That is the classic picture. Maimonides, the great medieval sage, writes about it. He says a person chooses whether or not he wants to overpower his evil inclination, the inner voice that pulls us toward wrong. He also says the whole matter is in that person’s own hands. This is the kind of choice everyone knows. You act, you sign, you open a door. But there is a question here that people do not always ask.
Q: What happens when you don't make a choice and just wait or stay silent?
Rabbi Landau answers: What happens when you don’t choose? You sit. You wait. You put it off. You stay silent. What is that? Is it just “sitting and doing nothing”? Is it a neutral state, a short pause before the real choice arrives? Think of the young married man who complains every morning about how his day is set up but never changes it. Has he simply not chosen yet? Think of the person who says, “I’ll take care of it when I have time.” Is he just standing still? Putting things off feels like not deciding. It feels as if the choice is still ahead of us, waiting patiently. But the truth is completely different.
Q: Can a person stand still spiritually, neither going up nor going down?
Rabbi Landau answers: Here a deeper point comes in. A person who is standing still imagines he is in balance. He is not going up, but he is not going down either. “I’m just standing here.” But spiritual reality is not built that way. The Tanya, the classic book of Hasidic thought, teaches this in its section of letters. It says that creation is renewed every single moment: “In His goodness He renews, every day and always, the work of creation.” Hashem does not stop. Time does not stop. A soul that is not moving upward is not standing still. It is drifting. Our Sages already said: “One who does not add, loses.” Whoever does not add is bound to lose. This is not a punishment.
Q: How can I make the choices I have been putting off on purpose instead of through silence?
Rabbi Landau answers: Sit down for a moment. Not to rest, but to see clearly. Look at everything you “haven’t decided yet.” Recognize that you have decided. Now, with a clear mind, ask yourself: Is this the choice I want to make? If not, change it. If it is, choose it on purpose, and not through silence. The choice is made right now. Not tomorrow. Not “when I have time.” Choose life.