{"id":52092,"date":"2019-03-26T01:05:32","date_gmt":"2019-03-25T23:05:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=52092"},"modified":"2022-10-17T17:50:45","modified_gmt":"2022-10-17T14:50:45","slug":"nitzavim-choosing-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/nitzavim-choosing-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Nitzavim: Choosing Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[368,369],"acf":{"old_id":"52092","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":46171,"related_cahpter":"183","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"From the Eytz Chayim, New Tree of Life","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Moses\u2019 resounding message is to heed God\u2019s laws and to obey them as the way to live one\u2019s life on the right path: \u201cSee, I set before you this day life and prosperity, death and adversity. For I command you this day to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments\u201d (Deut. 30:15\u201316). Moses calls dramatically upon Heaven and Earth to be his witnesses for the message of free choice that the Torah offers the people. \u201cI have put before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life\u201d (Deut. 30:19). <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How does the idea that man has the ability to freely \u201cchoose life,\u201d found here near the end of the Book of Deuteronomy, appear when viewed through the prism of concepts introduced so much earlier in the Book of Genesis?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Avner Moriah figures a man standing in front of a blue tree with green-leafed branches coming out of both sides of the trunk and extending to the top of the picture. The artist chose to symbolize the option of \u201clife and prosperity, death and adversity\u201d with an image that takes us back to the story of Creation and the Tree of Life. In Genesis we read:<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201c&#8230;.the Tree of Life in the middle of the garden, and the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil\u201d (Gen. 2:9).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When God put Adam in the garden of Eden, He gave him free choice: \u201cOf every tree of the garden you are free to eat but as for the Tree of Knowledge of good and bad you must not eat of it, for as soon as you eat of it you shall die\u201d (Gen. 2:16\u201317). Adam and Eve chose to disobey God and eat the forbidden fruit, a story that is told at length in Genesis 3. When Adam defied God and ate from the Tree of Knowledge, God said: \u201cNow that the man has become like one of us, knowing good and bad, what if he should stretch out his hand and take also from the Tree of Life and eat and live forever?\u201d (Gen 3:22).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this visualization we see a man, figured without arms, standing next to a big tree, suggesting the Tree of Life, with a large mountain in the background (known in the ancient world as a symbol of the Cosmos), the absence of arms implying that he will not eat from the tree. Adam made a choice in connection with a tree, and once he made that first free choice, he was bound by it. From this we understand that from the moment that the first man made that first free choice his fate was determined. <\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":52093,"id":52093,"title":"51 Nitsavim","filename":"51-Nitsavim.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/51-Nitsavim.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/nitzavim-choosing-life\/51-nitsavim\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"51-nitsavim","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":52092,"date":"2019-03-25 23:05:19","modified":"2019-03-25 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