A well known verse in this Parsha states: “…I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse, -and you shall choose life,(u’vacharta b’chaim)-in order that you and your offspring shall live. (30:19)”

Why do we need this verse?  Don’t we know we are supposed to choose the path of goodness and life?  Has Moshe not been telling the Jewish people this for almost an entire book?

The Baal Haturim, Rabbi Yaakov ben Asher (13c), comments on this verse that the numerical value of the word, “b’chaim,”  “life,” adds up to the number 70.  He says this is a reference to a certain aspect of Torah- the Torah’s 70 faces.  But what is the connection between the expansive notion of the 70 faces of Torah and choosing life?

Perhaps the following Midrash can shed light on this: “Though the written and oral Torah were given from one Sheepherd, nevertheless, just as the word yayin, “wine”, equals the numerical value of 70, so too there are 70 faces of Torah. (Bamidbar Rabbah 13)”.

It seems the 70 faces of Torah are connected in the Midrash to the joyus concept of the Torah being compared to wine.   Thus when the verse says “choose life”, its numerical value of 70 is a reference to expansion, the 70 faces or facets of Torah, and its joy, symbolised by wine which also has the numerical value of 70.

We are living through a time when the Torah seems quite limited.  The joy of being together for Shabbat and the holidays has been curtailed.   We wonder, what will the great joyous day of Simchat Torah at Kesher Israel- when the flowing wine knows few bounds, and the joy of dancing with the Torah together is contagious and encompassing- look like in our era of distance, exile, fear, and contagion.

I think the midrash is saying that when we choose the Torah, we choose a Torah that is 70-diverse, encompassing and joyus.   Our great challenge, of course, as it was for many generations of Jews, is to find the joy and the expansiveness of Torah even amid the limitations we face.   Jews have faced many limitations before and overcome them all.  Our expectations will need to be different this year, but Jewish life is not an either/or proposition, we will need to find the holy and jouys life in a different way than usual, and we can.  Perhaps in place of our body’s dancing with the Torah, our minds will delve into a new part of the Torah which will bring much joy, or perhaps we will dance with only a few others, or perhaps something else entirely.   If we adopt the lesson of choosing “life”, the lesson of the number 70, of expansion, of possibility and of joy, we will certainly find our way.