Yesterday was Yom Kippur, the Day of Repentance for Jews around the world and the end of the Days of Awe, an annual ten-day period of reflection and forgiveness. Rabbi David Wolpe:
Yom Kippur always recalls to my mind a poem written by a woman who was a member of the French Resistance in the 1940s and deported to Auschwitz. Her name was Charlotte Delbo, and she survived to write an account, Convoy to Auschwitz, as well as a trilogy about her experiences. There is a library in Paris today bearing her name. Delbo, who was not a Jew, wrote a poem, “Prayer to the Living to Forgive them for Being Alive.” The final lines of that poem in particular have become famous:
I beg you
do something
learn a dance step
something to justify your existence
something that gives you the right
to be dressed in your skin in your body hair
learn to walk and to laugh
because it would be too senseless
after all
for so many to have died
while you live
doing nothing with your life.[…]
Delbo’s poem and the prayers of Yom Kippur do not exhort us to achievement or performance. The message is not, “Life is short, and therefore you must diversify your portfolio.” Rather, “learn a dance step” suggests paying attention to the important simplicities of life, and being grateful for them. In a similar vein, Yom Kippur confronts us anew with the recognition that nothing is promised, no time is granted for certain, and what seems solid can dissolve in an instant. We and those we love are not here forever, and once our loved ones are gone we will long to again touch their faces and hear their voices.
During Rosh Hashanah and at the end of Yom Kippur, the piercing sound of the shofar serves as a wake-up call. Nothing is promised, so don’t waste the minutes. Love while there is time.