Before Yom Kippur

 

Several years ago Rabbi Tzvi Blanchard  taught something that has always stuck with me.

 

He taught that the verses that we recite at the end of Yom Kippur are the very same one that we recite as we prepare to die.

That we recite all of the prayers of Yom Kippur knowing that our lives are in the balance. Men in many communities wear a kittle a white robe, which is also used as a shroud, on Yom Kippur. So at N’eila we stand as a community in our shrouds and recite the words we say before we die….

And then, instead of departing this world.

 

We hear the sound of the Shofar…

and realize that we are still very much alive.

With hopes that the gates of heaven open to hear us all this year.