Baruch Dayan Emet

It's the aseret yimei teshuva, and just in case I wasn't sure what the gravity of this time period is - and let's face it, it is a hard thing to get - I was reminded last night.

A casual acquaintance of my family's, somebody I don't see very often but saw recently, died very suddenly. Baruch dayan emet.

She was in her mid-40s, last time I saw her she was dancing at a wedding, she was working on a degree, she has kids my age. And now she's gone. How does that happen? How can that happen?

Well, folks, it can happen to any one of us, and God is deciding right now whether or not it will. It's the aseret yimei teshuva, Yom Kippur is fast approaching. We only have a few more days to plead for our lives, to plead for all the good things, to beg God to give us another year.

Go do some teshuva.