May 11, 2026 · 57 min · 14 segments
For many of us, confronting death raises urgent questions of faith, doubt, and the meaning and purpose of our lives. Yet we live in a culture that avoids talking about death, let alone the existential…
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Mm-hmm.
Fascinating.
Shai, if you were to kind of think of some Jewish texts that would form the Jewish Ars Moriendi, what comes to mind?
It, it's an interesting question 'cause I don't think that we have the same kind of developed tradition, but one thing that I think about a lot in this context, and, um, reading your description of the Ars Moriendi actually really brought this home to me, is the idea that one of the things we do on Yom Kippur is enact a dress rehearsal for dying.
Um, you know, sometimes I've been tempted when I've served as rabbi of a community for Yom Kippur to encourage everyone in the room to wear a kittel, like a long white robe, because I think actually that's part of the symbolism of wearing a long white robe.
And the very idea of fasting is a way of bringing me into touch with the fragility of my body, the dependence and vulnerability of my body.
By the way, I think it's also about challenging me to work on my relationship with other people precisely when my most primal urges are strongest, right? When you get hungry, you get selfish.
So the paradox of saying, "I want you to get hungry and work on your goodness then," is an amazing kind of ritual and ethical challenge that rabbinic tradition makes.
But in a kind of different register, we are, um, enacting something that we spend a lot of our life denying.
You know, a- at the risk of sounding almost flip, I love the idea of fancy synagogues, people coming with their very expensive clothes, and then putting a kittel on over their clothes.
[laughs]
Um, and I- I'll share, this is a sli- slightly, slightly odd association, but I really feel like an apt one.
Putting on a kittel on Yom Kippur always reminds me of a gospel song that may be familiar to many of you called I Wanna Be Ready.
It's most famous to Americans because it's part of Alvin Ailey's Revelations series, the series of dances.
Um, "I would not be a sinner, man, because I wouldn't be ready to die," right? That is really about wearing a kittel.
What happens if I die today? Um, uh, there are many other rituals we could talk about, but that, I think, is the most dramatic one.
And it, maybe I'll add one sentence if I could, which is a conversation I've had with many rabbis over the years, is that I think many of my colleagues make a mistake, if I could be so bold, on the Days of Awe.
They'll say something like, "You have to live every day of your life in full consciousness of the fact that it could be your last." To which my response is, "No, you don't.
[laughs]
Mm-hmm.
Fascinating.
Shai, if you were to kind of think of some Jewish texts that would form the Jewish Ars Moriendi, what comes to mind?
It, it's an interesting question 'cause I don't think that we have the same kind of developed tradition, but one thing that I think about a lot in this context, and, um, reading your description of the Ars Moriendi actually really brought this home to me, is the idea that one of the things we do on Yom Kippur is enact a dress rehearsal for dying.
Um, you know, sometimes I've been tempted when I've served as rabbi of a community for Yom Kippur to encourage everyone in the room to wear a kittel, like a long white robe, because I think actually that's part of the symbolism of wearing a long white robe.
And the very idea of fasting is a way of bringing me into touch with the fragility of my body, the dependence and vulnerability of my body.
By the way, I think it's also about challenging me to work on my relationship with other people precisely when my most primal urges are strongest, right? When you get hungry, you get selfish.
So the paradox of saying, "I want you to get hungry and work on your goodness then," is an amazing kind of ritual and ethical challenge that rabbinic tradition makes.
But in a kind of different register, we are, um, enacting something that we spend a lot of our life denying.
You know, a- at the risk of sounding almost flip, I love the idea of fancy synagogues, people coming with their very expensive clothes, and then putting a kittel on over their clothes.
[laughs]
Um, and I- I'll share, this is a sli- slightly, slightly odd association, but I really feel like an apt one.
Putting on a kittel on Yom Kippur always reminds me of a gospel song that may be familiar to many of you called I Wanna Be Ready.
It's most famous to Americans because it's part of Alvin Ailey's Revelations series, the series of dances.
Um, "I would not be a sinner, man, because I wouldn't be ready to die," right? That is really about wearing a kittel.
What happens if I die today? Um, uh, there are many other rituals we could talk about, but that, I think, is the most dramatic one.
And it, maybe I'll add one sentence if I could, which is a conversation I've had with many rabbis over the years, is that I think many of my colleagues make a mistake, if I could be so bold, on the Days of Awe.
They'll say something like, "You have to live every day of your life in full consciousness of the fact that it could be your last." To which my response is, "No, you don't.
[laughs]
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