Chaye Sarah, Learning from Abraham
Va y’hihu chayay Sarah may-ah shanah v’esrim shanah v’sheva shanah shnay chayay Sarah And the years of Sarah’s life were 100 years and twenty years and 7 years, the years of Sarah’s life. This...
Tagged: death
Life: The Luck Of The Draw?
Image credit: pnging.com A few weeks ago, towards the end of Talmud Tractate Megilla, I wrote about various sages in the Talmud who lived to “old age,” whatever that meant 2,000 years ago, and...
Vayechi: Spiritual Support For The Dying
Photo credit: D-Gernz on Flickr This week’s Torah reading, Vayechi, begins by telling us that our patriarch Jacob, “lived 17 years in the land of Egypt,” once he had been reunited with his beloved...
Tazria-Metzora, Life In The Balance
One of my favorite TV shows is the BBC’s “Call The Midwife,” and waiting until October for the next season to start is a bit excruciating for me. Set in the late 1950s and...
How Did Moses Face His Fear of Dying?
On a recent walk, I was listening to the Hidden Brain podcast on NPR, and chose to listen to an interview with Dr. Sheldon Solomon called “We’re All Going To Die!” Feeling strongly as...
Dying to Live Our Best Life
It could be said that our patriarch, Jacob, was the first person to create an ethical will, essentially, a spiritual bequest to his heirs. In this week’s Torah reading, Vayechi, which means, “and he–meaning...
Silence, Grief and Water
In this week’s Torah reading, Hukkat, both Miriam and Aaron die, and Moses learns that he won’t be the one to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land. The people are in the 39th...
The Blessing of Time, the Time for Blessing
A man went to the doctor for a battery of tests. When they were finished, the doctor came back into the room with a solemn look on his face. He said to the patient,...
