I call heaven and earth to witness against you today: life and death I have set before you, the blessing and the curse; and you shall choose life, so that you may live, you and your offspring.
English: Rabbi Yishmael taught: “And you shall choose life” — this refers to a trade (umnus). From here the Sages said: a person is obligated to teach his son a trade. And some say: even to teach him to swim.
On the daf / in Yerushalmi: Choosing life is not only a spiritual decision; it includes equipping oneself and one’s children with the practical skills needed to live. Teaching a trade — and, in related teachings, even the ability to swim — is part of the commandment to choose life “so that you may live, you and your offspring.”
Type of Learning
R’ Yishmael (practical expansion of “choose life” to include the means of sustaining life in this world).
What Is Learned
Choosing life includes the obligation to teach a trade (and, some say, to swim) so that life may be sustained for oneself and one’s offspring.