"we are on that holy day [yom kippur] like the dry bones of ezekiel, knowing that we are frail, knowing that we are finite. it is as if we were given a reprieve. we may be dying, but we are not dead yet! in that sense, the philosopher hans jonas teaches that mortality is the gift the living give to the future. the wonder of life, awesome and terrible, is that it renews itself constantly by sloughing off the old and by embracing the new. just as we thrill that infants and children refuse to do things the way they have always been done, bringing a relentless energy to their lives and to ours, so too do we know that what is old breaks down and gives way before the young. life is this cascading process of endless renewal splashing across the millenia toward greater diversity, greater experience, greater relationship, and greater connection."
--from "ever dying, never dead--that's life!" by rabbi bradley shavit artson in the september/october tikkun
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