In this parashah God says: “This precept which I command you today is not difficult for you, nor is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it to us, and cause us to hear it, that we may do it? Nor is it on the other side of the sea, that thou mayest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it to us, and cause us to hear it, that we may do it? It is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart. Behold, I have set before you this day life and good, death and evil… and you shall choose life”. What precept does the Torah speak of? According to Nachmanides, it is about Repentance. How beautiful it is to know this, especially before Rosh Hashanah and Yom kippur, it is a great relief for our guilty conscience that, many times, betrays us by presenting its endless list of sins committed during our lives, making us believe that we lost the possibility of being forgiven. What a relief that God thinks differently and encourages us: leave behind your destructive thoughts about your past, because they do not interest me, in fact, if you choose to focus on them, you are despising life! All we need to do is to be sincere and recognize our faults and then make the real decision to change, that is already an excellent start to be forgiven. Remember: the past is gone and the future has not yet arrived, now is all we have, let’s take advantage of every second and choose life.