Every year, I hear from a different congregant the same story – I love the Unetaneh Tokef prayer, I come to high holidays just for it, no offense rabbi. But this year, I’m going to have to stand outside. You see, I lost someone close to me. Or, someone close to me received a diagnosis...or I did.
Unetaneh Tokef can be a scary prayer. Who will live, and who will die? How will they die? And it goes into detail. I mean, it’s scary stuff! Do you know, that we are the only being on earth that knows that one day, we are going to die? In order to function in life, we cannot think about it on a daily basis - if we did, we would go mad. But today and during these holy days, we allow ourselves those few moments to think about it – and I’ll tell why. It’s not so we get depressed – it’s not to paralyze us. Unetaneh Tokef is there to wake..us..up.
It is there to get us to appreciate life – to help answer a question:
When do you feel most alive?
This summer, my chevrutah (learning partner) and I, Rabbi Marci Bloch, asked each other this question as we both prepared for these days of awe. Now we want to see and hear your answers: When do you feel most alive? Tell the world with this hashtag: #Feelingalive5777
#Feelingalive5777
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