The Choice

Shabbat Shalom, beloved.

We start in the beginning. But we start there through Deuteronomy 30, because the cycle is continuous.

I call heaven and earth to witness this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life, that both you and your children may live — that you may love Adonai your Elohim, that you may obey His voice, that you may cleave unto Him. For He is your life and the length of your days.

Deuteronomy 30:19–20

The choice G-d set before Israel at Moab is the same choice He set before Adam and Eve in the garden. G-d does not change. And the choice has never changed.

Ahavah Ariel

Before we get to Bereshit, I want to introduce someone. During Sukkot many of you met the newest little arrow in my quiver. She shouldn't be alive.

During delivery she presented eyes forward — what we call occiput posterior. In that position the neck is bent all the way back. A child who delivers that way risks the plates of the skull severing the spinal cord. At the last moment, the Father moved her head into the normal position and spared her life. She was born on the eve of Yom Kippur.

I was raised to understand the importance of a name, and the importance of letting the Most High name my children. Every child comes in an appointed time. Every child carries a message for the season the parents are in.

As I meditated on this child's name, I recognized that my work here has been one of pursuing you with love. And when I factored in the lion, I assumed it was time for teeth and claws. I prepared a word full of intensity. The stage was perfectly set for it.

But it was not the right word. So I returned to Deuteronomy 30 to find the balance.

The Garden Through the Lens of Choice

Many of us were raised with the idea that G-d created a paradise, the serpent broke in, corrupted man, and now G-d has to figure out a way to save mankind. The fall of man.

Consider instead that G-d never changes. That the choice Israel received at Moab is the same choice Adam and Eve received in the garden. That the garden was not a tragedy but a stage — built intentionally for free will.

Why does an all-powerful, infinite Creator make something like us? King David asked that question. What is man? For me the answer is clear. Relationship. He put Adam in the garden and He walked with him. Did that change? Or does He still want relationship with us?

But here is the problem with relationship. Can you be in a real relationship with someone that has no choice in the matter? A child has no choice for a time. But the relationship I have with my child is not a real relationship until that child chooses to have a relationship with me.

So how does an infinite G-d give finite beings the ability to genuinely choose Him?

The choice we have today is the same choice. It looks different. It is not as poetically expressed. But we have an enormous advantage over Adam and Eve. We have the knowledge of good and evil. He told us: this is good and this is evil, this is life and this is death. That is an extraordinary gift.

Every time you rest on Shabbat, you choose Him. Every time you put aside food your flesh wants, you choose Him. Every time you speak His words instead of your own words, you choose Him.

I work on an ambulance. We often get very little downtime and we often get hungry. Fast food is an amazing thing when you're hungry and exhausted. But none of it's kosher. It says chicken on the menu. People get caught on that — it says chicken, so I'm going to trust it's chicken. But that is still choosing the flesh over G-d.

When I made the choice to stop eating fast food, I suffer for it on those shifts. All I have is a granola bar, and I'm trying to make it two hours until we get back to the station. That is a choice. My flesh is suffering because I'm choosing G-d. And I am so grateful for that relationship — where I am able to put His will above my will. That is what choosing Him looks like on a Tuesday afternoon.

Elohim and the Question of Plurality

And Elohim said: let us make man in our image, and after our likeness.

Genesis 1:26

This verse causes difficulty for some. Pagan scholars will tell you this is a pantheon of deities, that the ancient Hebrews were polytheistic. They take the name Elohim — El meaning power, im indicating plurality — and translate it as "the powerful ones." They paint a pantheon: Elyon at the top, Shaddai below him, Tzevaot over here. And they reject the Shema.

The Shema is not wrong. The scholars are.

Elohim is a singular plural. Not a group of powers but a source of powers. Every power that exists comes from this one source. That is what Genesis 1:1 establishes immediately:

And Genesis 1:27 settles the question of verse 26 entirely:

Elohim created man in His image — in the image of Elohim He created him; male and female He created them.

Genesis 1:27

Three times in one verse: singular. One Creator acted alone. Whatever the "us" of verse 26 refers to — angels as witnesses, heaven and earth as G-d's court, the royal we — the text does not tell us. So I will not pretend to know what the Torah leaves unstated. But I will also not allow an unstated ambiguity to overthrow what Torah states plainly: one Creator acted alone. When the text is obscure, we test the obscure against the simple. The simple is verse 27. The simple is Isaiah 44:24.

Thus says Adonai, your Redeemer, and He that formed you from the womb: I am Adonai that makes all things, that stretches forth the heavens alone and spreads abroad the earth by Myself.

Isaiah 44:24

I am Adonai, and there is none else.

Isaiah 45:18

You can say alone does not mean alone. You can say one does not mean one. You can take obscure verses and use them to redefine plainly stated text. That is a choice. Or you can believe the words of the Creator of the universe.

As for me, the choice is simple.

Why G-d Leaves Room for Confusion

But here is the question worth sitting with: why does G-d leave room for confusion at all? Why not write and Adonai said, let Me create man in My image? Why not remove every ambiguity?

He commanded Moses what to write. This is His deliberate choice. So the question we should ask is: what is He doing by leaving space here?

Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of G-d. But unto those that are without, all things are done in parables — that seeing they might see and not understand, and hearing they might hear and not perceive. Otherwise they might repent, and their sins would be forgiven.

Mark 4:11–12

He is following an ancient pattern — one we see in Isaiah, one we see in creation — where space is left for those who wish to twist, to corrupt, to choose option B. Those who listen and ask what does this mean get the answer. Those who tell you what it means without asking — that is who is being described.

This pattern runs through the entire Tanakh. Isaiah 6 shows it clearly. G-d sends Isaiah to a people who will hear but not understand, see but not perceive. Isaiah asks: how long? And G-d says: until the cities are laid waste.

Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and return, and be healed.

Isaiah 6:10

G-d does not force blindness on them. He describes what they have already chosen. The obscuring is not cruelty. It is judgment on a people who have already chosen not to see, while still preserving real choice for those who will seek.

Deuteronomy 29:4 says the same thing from Moses' mouth: Yet Adonai has not given you a heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day. The capacity for understanding is a gift given to those who pursue it. It is withheld from those who refuse.

Hosea says it plainly: my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge, because they have rejected knowledge. Not because knowledge was hidden. Because they refused to pursue it.

Free will is an extraordinary gift. The space G-d leaves in the text is part of how He preserves it. He builds room for us to choose Him — and room for those who will not.

We often say we seek His face. But what are we actually seeking? Are we seeking an image we can picture and control — or are we seeking the full revelation of the Creator, like Moses hidden in the cleft of the rock, longing to know Him as He truly is? That too is a choice. The Creator cannot be reduced to an image we find comfortable. To seek His face is to seek everything He is — including the parts that require us to change.

Choose You This Day

Now therefore fear Adonai and serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served… Serve Adonai. And if it seems evil to you to serve Adonai, choose you this day who you will serve… But as for me and my house, we will serve Adonai.

Joshua 24:14–15

We said Hineni — here I am. Did we mean it? Are we going to choose Him?

It is time we stop looking for proof and start looking for truth. The proof of our Creator is all around us. The proof that His word is true is testified by all creation. We have an extraordinary advantage over every generation before us. We have the knowledge. We have the word. We have the choice laid out plainly before us.

This is the call to the Northern Kingdom. The call to return. And G-d answers it through Hosea:

O Israel, return unto Adonai your Elohim, for you have fallen by your iniquity. Take with you words and turn to Adonai. Say to Him: take away all iniquity and receive us graciously… Assyria will not save us. We will not ride upon horses. Neither will we say anymore to the work of our hands: you are our Elohim. For in You the fatherless find mercy. I will heal their backsliding. I will love them freely, for My anger is turned away from him… Ephraim shall say: what have I to do anymore with idols? I have heard Him. I have observed Him.

Hosea 14:1–8

Who is wise? He shall understand these things. For the ways of Adonai are right, and the just shall walk in them.