Choosing Life as a Nation (Erev Yom Kippur)

Etz chayim hi lamachazikim ba, vetomecheha me'ushar. /

“It is a tree of life to all who grasp it, whoever holds on to it is happy.”

This verse, which we chant after our Torah service, proclaims our tradition, at its core, offers us a set of guideless to engage with life-giving actions and behaviors. As we’ve seen over the past year, when, at a national level, we are witnessing so much death, we desperately need a guide by which to live.

One of the many people who died this last year was Representative John Lewis, who in his final days, wrote a letter that was published posthumously. As we confront our own mortality,  and the systems and ideologies that cut short the lives of too many, let us reflect on his words, as a guide for us today, to understand what it means for us as a nation to bacharta b’chayyim / “choose life.”

*

Lewis shares, at the beginning of his letter — what George Floyd’s murder has been for many of us — Emmett Till’s death, when Lewis was 15, was for him: a wake-up call. As Jews, on Yom Kippur, some of us dress in white, or fast and abstain from water, to intentionally wake ourselves up to life’s fleeting nature. As we observe Yom Kippur this year, we can’t help but think about how many people do not intentionally choose to be reminded of this, but instead have it forced on them by unjust policies and hateful acts.

*

Classically, teshuva is understood to be comprised of three steps: the first is to repent, to turn away from beliefs and actions that diminish life’s dignity. Lewis says his own call to change his words and actions was inspired by Martin Luther King Jr. In Lewis’ words:

He said we are all complicit when we tolerate injustice…that each of us has a moral obligation…[to] say something…do something.

We must first set the intention to choose life through our words and actions.

The second step, according to our tradition, is to make a change, to take whatever steps we need to fully honor the diverse forms in which the spark of Divinity manifests. Lewis writes of this step: If we are to survive as one unified nation,  we must discover what so readily takes root in our hearts that could…choke to death the hopes and dreams of [so many people]. Some of you did this last year by joining me for a film and discussion series about racial justice; or supporting the resident-led memorial service for George Floyd.

But the third, and final step in doing teshuva, is the most important: resolving to do something. Of this step, Lewis famously quips:

Ordinary people with extraordinary vision can redeem the soul of America, by getting in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble.

For him, this means voting and participating in the democratic process, speaking up and advocating even — maybe especially, when it's uncomfortable. 

*

After our intensified encounter with mortality concludes — and we eat bagels and shmear, or whatever we do to end Yom Kippur this year — Torah calls us back to life, and to ensure it for all of Creation. How we do it is ultimately up to each of us. But John Lewis has a suggestion:

The vote is the most powerful nonviolent change agent you have  in a democratic society. You must use it because it is not guaranteed…

This is something we can all do. And we must…do…something.

While Lewis’s wisdom resonates in us, I want to offer us a blessing: may we all be blessed with the strength we’ll need in the coming days and months to do our part in choosing life this year and ensuring it for others. If we take even one step in this direction, our opening verse continues:

Deracheha d'rachei noam, vechol netivotecha shalom

The wise choices we make to protect life’s dignity this year have the potential transform all of our ways into “ways of pleasantness”, all our paths into “paths of peace.”

May it be so.