Rosh Hashana - Choose Life! - Jeremy Gimpel: The Land of Israel Fellowship

and there's another side of rosh hashanah and it's a very very important side it is in some ways like it's like it's like the heart of it all on rosh hashanah we confront our death it's a day of reckoning it's a judgment day of sorts it's like who's going to live this year and who's going to die this year will we live this year am i going to make it through this whole year will we make it through till the next do we deserve to live have i justified my existence no one wants to think about death it's not fun it's a little bit scary but ever so often it is very useful and even healing look at what king solomon says in the book of ecclesiastes it is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting for death is the destiny of everyone in the living should take this to heart king solomon says it's better to go to a house of mourning to go to a house where someone had died and just recognize that be in that for a little bit because listen folks this life is going to kill us we need to confront it every once in a while and one of the meditations on rosh hashanah is to think what it would mean for me if i wasn't going to make it through this year what would i do if i only had a few months to live who do i want to meet who do i want to make men's with who do i want to spend time with who do i not want to spend time with what matters to me most if i only have one month to live what am i waiting for the shofar is a wake-up call don't take life for granted i want to take in every sunrise if i only have a few months to live i want to hug every one of my children every single day i want to spend as much time with tehila as i possibly can i want to spend time with my brothers i want to spend time with my parents i want to spend time with my dearest friends i don't want to waste another second worrying about the things that are constantly eating at me i want to seize every day once a year remembering that our time is limited we're given a gift a reminder a chauffeur blast a wake-up call what are we waiting for like make the phone call you need to make hug who you need to hug right now why are you waiting when you are confronted with the limited time you have you realize you don't want us you need to set your life in order right now and fix things now rosh hashanah is the time that i ask what am i waiting for our past has brought us to this point now there's no reason in the world that our past needs to dictate anything about my future when we do chuva in a deep way we are taking responsibility for our lives by choosing our future and that of course brings us right to the parsha of this week this parsha is so special and for the last thousands of years the jewish people read this these verses right before rosh hashanah it's a part of the code it's a part of the process and for those who are living with the rhythm of the bible this epic moment in time lives on through us every year right before rosh hashanah deuteronomy chapter 30 verse 19 and 20. i call heaven and earth to bear witness against you i have placed life and death before you blessing and curse and you shall choose life so that you will live you and your offspring to love hashem your god to listen to his voice and to cleave to him for he is your life in the length of your days to dwell upon the land that hashem swore to your forefathers abraham to isaac to jacob to give them rosh hashanah is the time to choose the direction we want to go to choose life right now we release the arrow from the bow this year the dominoes stop from last year and we get a chance to start a new chain reaction we read this parsha and the message is crystal clear it's not in heaven it's not across the ocean it's in my mouth and it's in my heart to do it no matter what happened last year we can choose to direct our life in a better direction this year we have been given the power to offer our life into being and be inspired by the greatest author who created all of this and the torah is telling us before the new year use your god-given gift think pray and then choose it most people read the verse and say okay god puts us there blessing and curse and i better choose the blessing that's not what it says it says choose life so that you will live choose life and the blessing will come don't just stay neutral choose life love life listen to his voice listen to his voice walk in his light that is the blessing the shofar of rosh hashanah on one hand is our call to god from like the depths of our soul and at the same time it's god's call to us wake up you don't know how much time you have left on this planet you have a calling live it out this is the call of the shofar living that calling you are most alive choose life think beyond your current self transcend yourself onward and forward in that journey you will find your meaning in that sincere quest toward the good you'll be guided from above stay straight speak your being forward you have no idea how far it will take you and what love you will attract into your life do we understand we don't know how much time we have here none of us know there are forest fires there's corona viruses as if we don't know this i mean like wake up what are you waiting for i just like what are we waiting for call the person that needs to be called to sets things straight love who you need to love and let them know how much you love them don't wait another day this is a message that is going forth directly from zion directly from the torah exactly in this time directly to you choose life the new year is upon us what are we waiting for this is the time there has never been a greater time in the world to make things right than right now and so dear fellowship we have been brought together from around the world in the most mysterious prophetic way for this coming year and brothers and sisters with one father in heaven and as this move continues to grow and our message continues to spread from the mountains of king david we are shining a new light into this year into this new day and that light needs to shine from zion into the hearts of everyone around the world but that light can't just stay with you you gotta spread the light to the people around you and if there's right now someone in your life that there's like darkness there there's like a bad story there it's just a phone call we have to fix our lives with the people around us before we can really enter into yom kippur that's the truth we can't be good with god if we're not good with our fellow man that's like a law of yom kippur and this is the time now there's like an excuse it's a new year we can pick up the phone we can make that phone call we can write a letter we can send an email any way that you want to communicate but now is the time to set our life straight what are we waiting for breathe it in enjoy the sunrise every day look at the stars if you can if they're not like in the smoky area of the west coast enjoy the stars when you can enjoy your loved ones as much as you can seize the day and choose life when you choose life in that way blessing will manifest and so may you all be blessed with the most beautiful year with a good year and a sweet year and you should be blessed from the heart of israel