I Choose Life

By Rabbi David Jaffe

Image Description: Blog image with a photo of a sunrise on the left of the image over an ocean, with the night fading on the right side of the image. Text on top says, Tishrei 5787, by Rabbi David Jaffe.

Dear Kirva Community,

I am writing to you on the journey to Uman, Ukraine, to join the 215th Rosh Hashana gathering at Rebbe Nachman’s gravesite (the gatherings began the year he moved to Uman, six months before his death in 1810). The gravesite is a place of great yearning and prayer, especially on Rosh Hashana. Rebbe Nachman was known to say “my main thing is Rosh Hashana,” and he urged his followers to be with him on this holiday. Why would that be? 

Rosh Hashana, marking the creation of the world, is the starting point, the center around which we align our lives. It is the moment of Hitchadshut - rebirth and renewal. Anything is possible at this moment of rebirth, which makes it such a potent moment for prayer and yearning. A chassidic take on the Talmudic image of the three books that are open on Rosh Hashanah—the book of the righteous, the book of the wicked, and the book of those in-between—is that the pen is not in God’s hand, but in ours. We decide what book we want to be written into for the coming year. What kind of life do we want to live this coming year? The choice is yours. The Torah is clear—God wants us to choose life (Devarim/Deuteronomy 30:19). 

This past year was filled with so much unnecessary death, through climate events, wars of hubris, lack of care for Black and Brown lives, especially in the US, and cruelly withheld international aid and healthcare, and much more. What might a realignment with life in the center look like? That is one yearning I’m holding heading into Rosh Hashana.

I invite you to try this practice over the holiday and during the 10 days of Teshuva leading up to Yom Kippur:

Reflect on, or bring into prayer, this statement and question: “I choose life”—what does that mean for you? You can ask HaShem, the universe, ancestors, and more for help choosing life. Each day you can apply this statement/question to different parts of your life. Record what emerges and make more prayers from that. You can say these words out loud for a minute or two as a form of prayer.

I understand Kirva as a digital and physical gathering place for people who yearn for integration of their inner, spiritual, and emotional lives and the social justice they work to create in the world. I yearn for this integration and am deeply moved to be in wider community with you. I am especially grateful for our talented staff - Yehudah Webster, Sam Fine, and Dan Gelbtuch, and Disability Wisdom as Soul Care director Rabbi Lauren Tuchman, as well as our guest faculty, advisors, funders, and all of you who bring your yearning for wholeness and holiness to our community. 

I wish you all a year of renewal, health, joy, and connection, and may we see peace and healing throughout the world.

L’shana Tova U’metuka,

David