The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Babylon (1)
I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have placed before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, Deuteronomy 30:19 NASB
Choose life – “What shall we answer for ourselves on that Judgment Day, if we are too indolent to engage in this study, and so neglect one of the principal duties prescribed to us by God? Is it proper that we should exert our minds to the utmost upon subjects which we are under no obligation to pursue, or that we should engage in the study of dialectics which have no practical value, or of laws that have no relevance to our needs, while we leave to habit and blind custom that which constitutes our main duty to our Creator?”[1] So wrote Moses Hayyim Luzzatto in 1740. Nearly three hundred years later, we might find the same condemnation he intended for his Viennese audience. How will we answer that question? By claiming we were too busy dealing with life’s survival issues to dedicate ourselves to God? By excusing ourselves because “we are but dust”? By pretending the pleasures we seek to escape our daily stress are justifiable necessities? “Choose life,” declared Moses, but the truth of the matter is that human history is littered with those who chose otherwise, even if they were “religious.” Moses’ command—and warning—was about keeping Torah. Few do. What did Yeshua say? “Narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
Luzzatto was greatly concerned with the seductive appeal of the broad road. To combat this, he instituted a discipline which became known as Mussar. His work, Mesillat Yesharim: The Path of the Righteous, takes the reader step by step through the process of choosing life. Some years ago I conducted an in-depth study of this work, but now I realize that the circumstances and situations of ordinary living have created great detours for me. Oh, I could offer real, genuine excuses—excuses anyone would acknowledge—but none of them will stand up to Luzzatto’s opening question. “What shall we answer for ourselves on that Judgment Day?” That Judgment Day is closer for me than ever before. Perhaps if I had realized just how close it is—because it is any day—I would have not allowed so many detours. But I did. God was patient. I am still here to return to the path. And that’s what I’d like to do—to return to the path, one day at a time, right here on these pages. So, for the next however long it will take (with occasional sub plots), I propose to seriously consider Luzzatto’s solution to my wandering ways. You’re welcome to follow along.
We can start with “choose” (bāḥar). It’s not your “everyday make a decision” word. “. . . the word is used to express that choosing which has ultimate and eternal significance.” [2] It’s tied directly to what is useful and practical for life. “. . . serviceability rather than simple arbitrariness is at the heart of the choosing.”[3] “The scriptural doctrine of divine capacity for choice demonstrates that purpose and personality, not blind mechanism, are at the heart of the universe.”[4] What this means is that God chooses us—carefully, deliberately, with purpose in mind. His relationship to us is not arbitrary or accidental. He has something crucial in mind. And that raises the question Luzzatto wants to answer. Do we choose Him with equal care, equal intention, equal dedication?
How could we not? Unless, of course, we just don’t think about it.
Step number 1: Think about it!
Topical Index: Moses Hayyim Luzzatto, Mesillat Yesharim, choose, bāḥar, Deuteronomy 30:19
[1] Moses Hayyim Luzzatto, Mesillat Yesharim: The Path of the Upright, p. 5.
[2] Oswalt, J. N. (1999). 231 בָּחַר. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 100). Chicago: Moody Press.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
