Parshas Nitzavim. At the very end of the parsha, as Hakadosh Baruch Hu delivers what is b'etzem the final tochacha — the last great mussar of Devarim — the Torah says:
החיים והמות נתתי לפניך הברכה והקללה ובחרת בחיים למען תחיה אתה וזרעך
Devarim 30:19
Choose life!
The Rishonim see this as the makor for the whole concept of bechira, that a person has free choice. But, if you think about it, this is a strange place for the Torah to say it. The main source that there is bechira is the entire Torah itself. It makes no sense that Hakadosh Baruch Hu should be metzaveh mitzvos and aveiros on a being that has no choice. So logically, the makor for bechira should sit at the very beginning of Torah, or maybe somewhere at Ma'amad Har Sinai. To place the whole musag of bechira at the end, is mudna.
Also, seemingly off-target: The pasuk says uvacharta bachayim — choose life. But we are really speaking about mitzvos and aveiros; the hadgasha should have been to choose mitzvos. Saying “uvacharta bachayim” is mashma that the etzem tzivuy is uvacharta bachayim itself, not chose the mitzvah over the aveira.
We have to be misbonen in bechira itself. We use it colloquially to mean “free choice,” but when it’s used in Tanach the word is used mostly about Hakadosh Baruch Hu’s choice: We speak of the Beis HaMikdash as the מקום אשר יבחר, the Beis HaBechira. We say in davening a passuk אַתָּה הוּא יְהוָה הָאֱלֹהִים אֲשֶׁר בָּחַרְתָּ בְּאַבְרָם. We say Ha’bocher b'amo Yisrael. What does it mean that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is bocher? We have bechira because we are pulled two ways, so we have to choose between two directions. But what does it mean by Hakadosh Baruch Hu? And whatever this bechira is by HKBH, since Adam is בצלם אלוקים, his koach bechira must have a tzad hashaveh to HKBH’s bechira.
The Maharal has a comment about this which is the mafte’ach. The Maharal asks a classic kasha: Why does the Torah tells us nothing of Avraham Avinu's life until Lech Lecha? One would expect the record of his ma'asim tovim, the smashing of Avoda Zara, the mesiras nefesh by the Kivshan. Instead the passukim say nothing, and then, out of nowhere, Hakadosh Baruch Hu says Lech Lecha.
The Maharal answers that, had the Torah listed Avraham’s deeds, I would have assumed Hakadosh Baruch Hu chose him because of the tzidkus of Avraham. Kamashma lan — it has nothing to do with the tzidkus. It was simply HKBH’s Bechira, without reason. That’s his teretz.
It’s hard to understand. "Without a reason" doesn’t sound like a good thing. If I ask a person why he did something and he answers, " no reason, on a whim," that seems reckless and irrational. So what does it mean that Hakadosh Baruch Hu was simply bocher b'Avraham "for no reason"?
Rav Shamshon Rafael Hirsch contrasts two words: bachar and barar. To choose and to select. They are similar, but there’s a fundamental difference. L’mahsal, the Gemara in Gittin measures a bar da'as by his koach of brera: the child who צרור וזורקו אגוז ונוטלו— he can distinguish between a pebble and a nut. Brera is the koach to be mavchin between two things and pick the better one. Which one is better? Meaning, when I am trying to accomplish something, sechel steps in and is mavchin which one helps me accomplish what I want to accomplish. I want to eat, and I choose food A over food B because it is better, or cheaper, or healthier, and so on. I want to travel to a destination, so sechel has to dan — what’s a way to get there? is there a better way? That is brera. It’s danning on the heicha timtza for me to accomplish my goals.
But before you get tangled in the world of brera, there’s a more fundamental bechira taking place: why was that goal even your goal? Before you set out on your heichi timtzas, why was your ratzon what it is? That question has zero to do with sechel. L’mashal, a sick man chooses between two doctors — that is brera. But ask him why he wants to live at all, and there is no answer in the world of brera. “I choose life over death because —” because what? It does not belong to the world of sechel. It is my atzmiyus, my ratzon, my chiyus — this is me.
If I ask “Why are you friends with Reuven?” And you answer “Because he can help me,” “or because I have hakaras hatov,” that’s a brera, heicha timtza answer that comes from sechel. But if you answer “I don't know — I just like Reuven” that answer is not coming from sechel, but it’s just grasped as pashut, “that’s who I am.” That’s a bechira.
When the Maharal says Bechira is “for no reason,” it doesn’t mean it’s whimsical. It means that I didn’t choose it as a conclusion reached by sechel, but rather it connects to my etzem mahus, my etzem ratzon.
Hakadosh Baruch Hu created a gigantic briya — mind boggling, with trillions of stars, myriad elements, and laws of physics that animate and dictate the briya. It’s all a b’chinas sechel, a tremendous heicha timtza so that the world can accomplish its goal. But within this giant world Hakadosh Baruch Hu is bocher a makom? bamakom asher yivchar – Why this makom? The answer is not going to be with klei sechel – with an argument that it’s best suited to accomplish x,y and z. HKBH’s ratzon precedes any heichi timtza. HKBH establishes His makom, and everything else calibrates and aligns with that.
There were many Tzaddikim who did good things. Noach was a tzaddik, Shem v'Ever were chashuve people who did mitzvos and HKBH gave them schar. And HKBH wants us to do mitzvos – avada, avodas Hashem manifests in the form of ma’aseh mitzvos, but underneath the ma’aseh mitzvos, there’s when the entirety of the person, the atzmius of the person aligns with HKBH’s ratzon. The person’s entire chiyus is to connect with the ratzon of HKBH. HKBH, k’b’yochol, gravitates towards such a person, because His ratzon is already abiding there. By Avraham Avinu, because לבבו נאמן לפניך — Avraham's essence was so completely animated by HKBH, that HKBH’s ratzon was already abiding with him. That’s what it means אשר בחרת באברם
What we’re describing parallels the world of lishma. The Rambam explains רצה הקדוש ברוך הוא לזכות את ישראל לפיכך הרבה להם תורה ומצוות – HKBK gave us mitzvos so that we can do one of them lishma and be zoche to Olam HaBa. Olam Haba is talu’i on lishma.
When we speak of lishmah — "for its own sake" — it’s so vague; what does that even mean? It means we’re not operating in the world of heicha timtza anymore, but instead we’re dealing in the world of atzmius. Shelo lishmah means I want the mitzvah for something entirely outside it: I do it so people should say, "oh, what a tzaddik," or even a more refined lo lishma – I do the mitzvah so that Hashem should act favorably toward me — that too casts the whole world of mitzvos into the framework of heicha timtza, of means toward a separate end. Lishma is when I’m not even considering what I’m accomplishing. It’s just pashut “ki heim chayeinu.”
It is like the difference between two ways of sitting beside an important person: sometimes my hana'ah is that everyone is looking on and saying, "look who he's sitting with" — that is shelo lishmah; but sometimes my hana'ah is simply that I love the person and want to be with him. That is lishmah.
Olam Haba is the world of your etzem metzius. Your shayichus to that world is when what you do flows from the pashtus of your metzuis, as opposed to doing things as heichi timtza.
But – and this is an important Nekuda – Lishma is the end of the process. Mitoch shelo lishma ba lishma! This alignment comes at the end of avodah – not the beginning. And that’s why this darga is coming at the end of the Torah, not the beginning. The bechira of our parsha is not should you do mitzvos or aveiros. You’re right – if that was the whole point, then it precedes all the mitzvos. All the tzivuyim of the Torah assume a person can be borer the correct path forward. And those tzivuyim are what a person is mechuyav to do, whether he likes it or not, whether it’s your ratzon or not. But the final makeh b'patish is not a command on what we should do — but on what we should feel as our atzmius. U’vacharta B’Chayim!
…
And this is exactly the avodah of Rosh Hashanah. On Rosh Hashanah, we are mema'et almost every bakasha; but the one inyan that runs through the whole day is chayim — zochreinu l'chayim, kasveinu b'sefer hachayim. Why?
Because everything else — parnassa, refuah — are all heicha timtzas for chiyus. But on Rosh Hashanah we’re trying to be mema’et anything non-essential, and instead we try to animate our core drive for chiyus itself!
The whole year we’re involved with the olam of heichi timtza, and ovoda of shelo lishma. Even our ruchniyus-dike pursuits of ma’aseh mitzvos, for most of us, we’re still struggling at the level of lo lishma where we need incentives, and sechel-dike arguments to keep us motivated.
But on Rosh Hashana we’re asking to graduate, from shelo lishma to lishma. Where our behaviors flow from the pashut recognition that “ki heim chayeinu!” We correctly recognize our struggle to internalize ruchniyus, and beg HKBH Zachreinu l'chayim – let us touch lishma! HKBH, ha’bocher b’amo Yisroel b’ahava, see how we are bocher in You, u’vacharta b’chayim, and answer our bakashos, zachreinu l’chaim, l’ma’ancha, E-lokim Chayim!
Good Shabbos!