Rabbi Marc D. Rudolph

Do you know the story in the Talmud where Rabbi Eliezer teaches his students that they should repent the day before their death? “But how do you know the day you are going to die?” asked his students. Rabbi Eliezer replied, “Exactly, you should repent today, for who knows when you are going to die?” In this way they discovered that Rabbi Eliezer would repent every day of his life.

Yom Kippur, the Day of Repentance, has been called a “rehearsal for death”. We dress in a white shroud, a “kittel”, we refrain from eating and drinking, so as to disengage from the physical world. Just as before our death we recite the “vidui”, a confession of sins, so on Yom Kippur we confess our sins. It is written that “death atones for our sins”. Yom Kippur also atones for our sins.

Sociologist Tony Campolo asked fifty people over 90 what they would change about their lives if they could do it over again. Three responses stood out. “I would reflect on my actions more”. “I would take more risks”. “I would do more things that live on after I die”. But we do not have to live with regrets. As long as we are still alive, we can make changes. It does not really matter whether we die tomorrow or have many more years ahead of us. The only moment that counts is this one.