T here’s no denying that talking about death is unpleasant. We know that it happens to us all yet confronting our own mortality is more than just uncomfortable.
End-of-life is hard to discuss, but harder not to
T here’s no denying that talking about death is unpleasant. We know that it happens to us all yet confronting our own mortality is more than just uncomfortable.
Emphasizing this point the Chofetz Chaim has written that we tend to think of those who have passed on as members of a “society” that we personally have not signed up for. True people die but they are “those people who die.” David Hamelech expresses this in Tehillim when he says “Va’ani amarti b’shalvi bal emot l’olam — I said in my serenity I will never falter.” Nevertheless the reality is that we all pass on: “The days of our years are 70 and if with strength 80 years.”
Much as the baalei mussar urge us to remember the yom hamisah in order to prepare ourselves spiritually it is incumbent upon us to prepare for that inevitable day in a practical sense as well.
Many people — especially young people — think that buying life insurance is all they need to do to prepare. This myth is supported by an underlying notion that preparing for end-of-life issues creates an ayin hara that might chas v’shalom hasten our demise. The reality is that Chazal urge us to prepare a kever well before our petirah (see Vayikra Rabbah 5:5).
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