A rabbi was called to the bedside of an elderly congregant, the patriarch of a family she knew well. He told the rabbi that he wasn’t doing well and was nearing the end of his life. He wanted her to say a prayer for him. She asked if he wanted her to recite a misheberach for healing or the Vidui, the confessional before death. He knew that the Vidui was not an admission that death was necessarily imminent, but was declaring that if death was near, he was ready. He chose the Vidui.
The rabbi invited the family to stand around his bedside as she recited the Vidui, and he joined her in saying the Shema. They all held hands around his bed and had a tearful and meaningful goodbye.
She called the family the next morning to check in, and they said their loved one had rallied. A week later he was in rehab and ended up continuing in relatively good health for several years.
When the rabbi called to speak to him, he said, “Rabbi, I guess I just wasn’t done.”
I’m struck by the way this man spoke about his life, a way that we can think about our own lives regardless of our age. Not done. We still have things to do. The arrival of the new year is a good time to take stock of what’s not done yet and what it is we’d like to accomplish. Rabbi Simcha Bunim offers the following observation: “Just as before dying, all the powers of the body clutch hard at life, so too a person at the turn of the year ought to clutch at life with all of that person’s might.”
May the year ahead be one where we each clutch at life. May we engage in the work of figuring out what’s not done yet, and what we have in our powers to accomplish.
I’m looking forward to davening with you over yuntif in the coming days, and wishing you and your loved ones a Shana Tovah uMetukah. Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Sarit
