by Miriam Dreiblatt, delivered at Minyan M'at

Little body BIG VOICE.

My parshiot are a drama between G-d, Moshe, and the Israelites. Moshe plays the middleman by taking messages from G-d to the people and from the people to G-d. Moshe is ending his 40 years as the leader of Israel as the people get ready to cross the Jordan River and enter their promised land. Moshe will not enter Israel with them and Joshua will take his place as the leader of the Jewish people. Because of mistakes that Moshe made in the past, G-d decides that Moshe will die with only a glimpse of the land of Israel from the top of a mountain. But before Moshe dies, he gives the Israelites one more speech on how to live.

The message that G-d gives to Moshe to tell the people is about a choice. The choice is stated in Devarim 30:15: : “See, I have placed before you today life and good, death and bad.” This verse is also on my tallit. This pasuk caught my eye the very first time I read it because I thought it was such a bold statement. To ask someone to make such a choice seemed brash of the person, or in this case of G-d. The Israelites must choose between goodness and life or evil and death. Some choice! Choosing life in the Torah’s perspective is choosing G-d and the mitzvot, but is there a middle category? There must be. The middle ground could be choosing ethics, but not believing in G-d or choosing G-d, but acting unethically. When there are situations when two or more people disagree, one needs to find a middle ground. As I was learning my parshiot, I struggled with the concept of G-d not giving the people choice between life and death.

Searching for an explanation on why the Torah didn’t give a middle ground, I looked to Rashi. The first thing my mom asked me to do was to got through the parshiot and find comparisons between the words. As I was looking through the chumash I noticed that there was another pasuk that rephrased the pasuk that had first caught my eye. It is Devarim 30-19. The pasuk is: “ I invoke, as witnesses against you this day, heaven and earth: Life and death have I placed before you, blessing and curse; you choose life in order that you and your descendants shall live. ” Rashi has quite a lot to say on this verse. The first thing he says is that heaven and earth will be the witnesses to the covenant that the Israelites made with G-d and Moshe after Moshe dies. Moshe chooses heaven and earth because they will always be there and humans will come and go. G-d also says that heaven and earth will be the Israelites’ witnesses because G-d made heaven and earth to serve His people. Another reason that G-d chooses natural forms instead of people is because in Rashi’s point of view G-d is trying to make a contrast between humans and all other life forms. The contrast, Rashi explains, is that humans are given the ability to choose, but all other living beings are not given that ability. The sun does not choose to rise in the east every morning and set in the west. The earth doesn’t get to decide whether or not to produce. Humans, on the other hand, do get to choose and are meant to choose their life. I feel as if that is the main point of my parshiot. Choice. Humans get to choose how to act in order to reap G-d’s reward or punishment. Doing good deeds and following G-d’s commandments will earn you a long, full, and happy life. On the other hand, doing evil deeds and not following G-d’s commandments could gain you a short life in the Torah’s perspective. Finally, Rashi says something very interesting. On the phrase which means “choose life ”, Rashi comments by telling a story of a boy choosing a section of his father’s land. Rashi compares G-d’s telling the people to pick a part of life to a boy picking land in his father’s estate. G-d is explaining to the Israelites to choose the best part of life. Like the father to his son, G-d does not say which part of life is the right one, but leaves it open for the Israelites to decide. And again the parshiot show that G-d is trying to convey the beauty of choice.

In the beginning of this dvar torah I asked the question “Is there a middle category?” I still think there is even with Rashi’s persuasive comments. In fact, I think that there are as many middle categories as people can come up with. Every time someone chooses a way to live they choose a middle category. In my opinion most people would not pick the two extremes, good or evil, because most people are neither completely evil nor good. As a 12 year old this concept of not having middle categories between choices is hard for me. I have always lived in a Jewish community that has given me many choices. But in the Torah’s perspective there is no middle category between life and death.

I will always remember these parshiot because they are my bat-mitzvah parshiot and because as I grow older I will have to face choices with no middle ground like the Israelites.

My life would not be complete without so many people. First, I would like to thank my leyning teacher Toby Silverstein for teaching me my Torah and Haftorah portions. Grandma thank you for always saying what's on your mind and always outdoing yourself. Unfortunately, my nana, papi, and grandpa are not here to share this celebration, but we all remember them in spirit. I would like to thank my parents for always being there for me. Through my tantrums when I was a baby, a toddler, a small child, and an even smaller pre-teen 2 days ago. Thank you mommy for helping me learn the Rashi and always telling me the truth. ___ thank you for always making me laugh, for letting me pick out wild tropical flowers for my bat-mitzvah, and for driving me and my brothers 3 hours each way to play mini-golf at Nutty Putty. Thank you Ezra for always standing up for me when I am in a bad situation and making funny faces behind ___ and ___’s back while they complained on how we didn’t clean our rooms. Ruby thank you for always surprising me with questions such as “ How do you roll your eyes? ” I would also like to thank my friends at school, camp, and so many other places for listening to me chatter on and on about things and always being there to share a laugh or comfort me when I am upset. I would like to thank my teachers and mentors at the Heschel School, Minyan Ma’at, and my family for making me smile.

SHABBAT SHALOM AND THANK YOU FOR COMING FROM NEAR AND FAR TO CELEBRATE WITH ME ON MY BAT-MITZVA.

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