Nitzavim - choose life

Hi, this is Evolvski. Welcome to the para in five where in five minutes we give you an insight into the para to hopefully enhance your shabas. And now we're coming to the end of the year. We're coming to the end. We have to uh appreciate the final shabosim of the year and to make it meaningful for us. So uh separate this year I'm reading to you from I bring as witness heaven and earth. I place before you today life and death. and life is and death is and I put these two things in front of you and choose life says Rashi go out and choose the best thing that I have and the best thing that I have is braha and life. I knew a young lady who was struggling with mental illness and uh she was becoming lax in her mitzvah observance and uh her parents wanted me to speak to her. She was not doing well. They were trying to find the right cocktail of drugs to be able to help her and it was very hard. She was clearly in a lot of pain. I mean that was obvious. And I said, "I don't think anybody gets how hard life is for you." And she says, "I feel like if I didn't keep fighting, I would die." And I said, "You would kill yourself." She said, "No, I would just die from the pain." I've met people who cut themselves. They cut they literally take a piece of glass and cut their skin. They're they're they're covered with scars because the pain is so intense they can't take it. The the the pain of the mental illness that they're going through. The the pain of the suffering they're having is so hard says listen I'm giving you life and I'm giving you death. I'm giving you braha and I'm giving you clal and life is going to be about you choosing braha or clal and that's why in last week's par as soon as we come into there's two mountains her grieman and harl and what is the mountain of braha and one is the mountain of and says choose which mountain you want you want to live a life of suffering you want to live a life of death in rash we say are written into the cif mason and ask of desa but you see that the rishim who every year don't die in rash and he says yes they do they're just not going to be buried for 40 years but they're already dead because when hashem says they chose death they chose they chose was a life of pulling away from a kurb says listen I give you a choice you want to live in braha or you want to live in kala what's going to motivate you braha or suffering I hate to say how many people are motivated by suffering I don't know I don't have to tell you how many people are dead while they're still alive and that's why sadikim even when they're dead are called alive and rash even when they're alive are called dead. It's a very important thing. The first thing a person has to say is I want to live. I want to be alive. I'm still available for aash. Yeah, the choose life. Choose life. That's the most important thing is I have to say to a bar I want to live and if you want to live then everything else will follow in its wake. All the braha will come. Follow Hashem's advice. Choose life. Chavas.