How you live & how you die – Chayyei Sarah
* Kohelet 2:14 warns us that “one event happens to us all”.
* The Wisdom of Solomon 2:1 says, “There is no remedy when a person comes to his end”, but we should not be afraid since “What people call death is the reinvigoration of life” (Rav Kook, Orot HaKodesh page 392).
* One should be wise in how they live and wise in how they die.
* Avot 2:10 says that because death is always imminent, a person should always be in a state of repentance and able to face scrutiny.
* The Torah says, “Let me die the death of the righteous” (Num. 23:10).
* R. Yose ben Avin says (Yerushalmi Y’vamot 15:2): “On the day of death two worlds meet with a kiss – the kiss of departure from this world; the kiss of arrival in the World to Come”.
* The warrior of Masada, Elazar ben Ya’ir, said, “Life, not death, is the problem”. A person who lost a close relative was asked, “What was the cause of his death?” He replied, “Life” (Sefer Sha’ashuim 7:27).
* Joshua Loth Liebman said, “It is the knowledge that our years are limited which makes them so precious” (Peace of Mind, page 135).
