Who shall live and who shall die?

One of the fundamental questions-and certainly one of the most poignant parts of the service- during the time of year that spans Rosh Hashana to Yom Kippur is the idea that some of us won't be around at this time next year.

It's a tough concept to keep in mind. After all, we've been at a bunch of services in years past so you might say that you have a "good track record."

Still, there were holidays well before I was born that I didn't attend so it shouldn't be that much of a stretch.

Yet, for me, it is.

So, this year, I went in thinking to myself, "what if this is really the last Rosh Hashana or Yom Kippur that I ever experience?"

I looked around the room, watched some of the people, listened just a bit more closely to the words of the Torah and the songs.

Ever since Thanksgiving, I've been using an app called We Croak. Thanks to my brother, Barak, for pointing it out.

As the site says, "The WeCroak app is inspired by a Bhutanese folk saying: to be a happy person, one must contemplate death five times daily."

I can't say that I'm 100% happy 24/7, but I can say that the contemplation of death during the services did make me feel lighter as I realized the opportunity I had in front of me to appreciate the present of the present.