One of the most famous soliloquies of all time was spoken by a young man by the name of Hamlet. Poor Hamlet. His father is murdered by his uncle so that his uncle could marry his mother. Hamlet is enraged. Hamlet is perplexed. What allegiance does he owe to his dead father? His own mother? His own integrity and self-respect?

So, we get in Act 3: “To be or not To be? That is the question……….to die: to sleep; no more; and by a sleep to say we end the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to….”

Hamlet is speaking like any self respecting existentialist; he is also speaking from a deeply secular perspective. And for a secularist, whether or not to live on is truly a choice that must be made, really, every day of one’s life. To live or to die? Perhaps choosing death rather than suffer the inevitable pain we all have to suffer at one time or another in living our lives.

Our Torah has a very different perspective. For in the Torah: there is no question about living or not living. God gives us life, He gives us a Divine Spark, and we have no right to neglect or to reject this gift. According to our tradition, even doing minimal harm to our bodies, like getting a tattoo, for example, is forbidden. God gives us our bodies, He gives us life and He expects that we will do something with it, something of value, something that is important, indeed, something that could change the whole world.

So we come upon a verse almost immediately in our parasha that gives us this very message loud and clear. It reads, “tzedek, tzedek tirdof.” “Righteousness, righteousness you shall pursue” (Deut 18:20).

The commentators love this verse because they get to imagine why the word tzedek is doubled. Some say the word is doubled because one tzedek refers to the command to be righteous, when it is to your benefit. And the other tzedek is that we should be honest and just even when it isn’t in our interest to do so. Another commentator says that the words are doubled because it teaches us that we should pursue justice (the first tzedek) but only through just means (the second tzedek).

Interesting ideas but this is not the part of the verse that fascinates me. It’s the other key word in the verse: tirdof which means, “you shall pursue.” Tirdof is in the second person command form of the verb “radaf” which has three meanings in the Bible. The first means to pursue, but not as in our verse. If you are running after someone to kill them, you are a “rodef” and according to Jewish law, the one you are pursuing can protect him by killing you first. The second meaning is that of persecution which is how Job uses the term to describe his so-called friend, Bildad: “Lama tirdefuni: why do you harass me or persecute me [with your ideas]?

Notice that both of these connotations of the verb radaf are negative and hostile: harassment, persecution, chasing someone to kill them. But then we have our verse: tzedek, tzedek tirdof: righteousness, righteousness shall you pursue.

Suddenly the Torah brings the verb into a verse that is very positive. Here we don’t pursue to kill or harm, or harass. What we are pursuing is righteousness.

Perhaps what the Torah is telling us is that we really have two choices. We can pursue justice and create a civilized society in which people respect each other and each other’s property, or we can do nothing, remain passive and let society go where it will which is probably away from God and towards evil. If we do not pursue justice (tirdof), we will be pursued by evil (rodef); or will be harassed by evil (tirdifuni). Our choice is clear: justice or evil –there are no other choices available.

Now I come to what I like most about the verse. The form of the verb tirdof is a command form “to pursue.” It is an action verb; it requires of us to do something. The Torah could have said be just. Be righteous –and leave it at that. But the Torah has no interest is what you are now, but rather concerned with what you are becoming. A person can’t “be” righteous. What would that mean? A person who doesn’t cheat and steal? A good guy who minds his own business. Better than nothing, perhaps, but there is nothing special about a person like that. “Being righteous” yet remaining passive means that one might ignore someone who needs help, who may be hungry, or ill, or lonely. To “be” righteous means to do no wrong; it doesn’t go farther than that and from God’s perspective, that isn’t really being righteous at all.

So the Torah says “pursue” righteousness. Of course, be righteous yourself, free of sin. Yes, examine your ways, be fair, be kind, observe the law. But don’t stop there. Rather, get out in the world and create justice where there is none. Jews must get involved in what happens in this world, day to day. Pursuing righteousness is never passing up the opportunity to make things right when they are wrong. Jews must make a difference in the world, to be, as our Prophet says, a light unto the nations.

So when we go back to Hamlet, we see that this brilliant and complex young man is missing the point of his life all together. He hesitates, he ponders, he considers and he doesn’t do anything which allows the live of his family members and his friends to spin out of control into unnecessary disaster. At the end of the play, as you may remember, most of the characters lie dead on the stage.

The question isn’t, “to be or not to be.” The question is how to help, what to do and when to do it so that it we contribute significantly to improving our world.

That’s what it means to be a Jew. Nothing easy about it, but it provides for a life that is infused with meaning and importance. And what more can you ask for than that?