It is obviously a very stark reminder of our own mortality and contains questions we just cannot answer.  As I read the news over the last few days regarding the death of Steve Jobs, I began to read some of his speeches.  In his now famous Stanford commencement address, he seemed to focus on the same type of existential questions, in his own way:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

The U’netana Tokef prayer continues to give a Jewish response to the possible outcomes contained in the first paragraph:

            Teshuva (repentance), Tefilla (prayer) and Tzedaka (righteousness including charity) will avert the evil decree.

Steve Jobs, in another speech, seemed to have his answer:

Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.”

I think that both our traditional answer and Steve Jobs’ modern approach work together beautifully.  We can repent for our sins both to God and to our fellow human beings.  We can pray and we can give tzedaka in a “righteous” way.  And if we focus on these traits, I know each of us can go to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful.

Shabbat Shalom.  G’mar Chatimah Tova.  May you be inscribed in the Book of Life.