“Go with the flow” is generally good advice. The Collins Dictionary defines it as being willing to “adapt and accept situations as they happen rather than trying to control or fight them.”

There is wisdom in that. We cannot control everything that happens around us, and sometimes the healthiest response is to adapt, accept and move forward.

But there is another side to life. Sometimes we shouldn’t go with the flow. Sometimes we need to stop, think, and consciously decide where we want to go.

In this week’s Torah reading, Moshe gives us one of the Torah’s most powerful instructions:

“ובחרת בחיים, למען תחיה אתה וזרעך”
“Choose life, so that you and your children may live.”

At first glance, the verse seems strangely repetitive. Why does the Torah tell us to choose life in order that we may live? Surely if we choose life, the result is obvious.

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch explains that the Torah is speaking about two different kinds of “living”.

A person can be alive, moving from one day to the next, responding to whatever life brings. But that is not necessarily the life the Torah is describing. To truly live means to live with purpose, meaning and direction.

And that does not happen by accident.

“Choose life” means making conscious choices about the person we want to become, the values we want to live by, the relationships we want to nurture and the kind of home we want to build.

As Rabbi Hirsch writes, a person does not attain true “life” unknowingly, unwillingly or by chance. We must want it and consciously choose it.

As we approach Rosh Hashanah, this is a powerful challenge. There are things in life we need to accept and learn to flow with. But we cannot simply “go with the flow” about who we are becoming.

Life happens. A meaningful life is chosen.

Shabbat Shalom.