{"id":86830,"date":"2021-01-17T18:38:12","date_gmt":"2021-01-17T16:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=86830"},"modified":"2021-01-17T18:38:12","modified_gmt":"2021-01-17T16:38:12","slug":"teach-us-to-number-our-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/teach-us-to-number-our-days\/","title":{"rendered":"Teach Us To Number Our Days"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"86830","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":83694,"related_cahpter":"657","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"An ongoing process and a lifelong challenge\r\n\r\n","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">t was the eighth day of Passover 2006. I was seated next to my father in the synagogue. This would be my first time attending a Yizkor Service.\u00a0 My beloved mother had died about a year prior.\u00a0 As I read the prayer, a series of memories and images flooded my mind. I thought of her many acts of kindness, her charity work, her striking blue eyes.\u2026. \u00a0 Suddenly, a competing series of thoughts intruded my dreamlike revery. These were even more surreal and disturbing: a startling epiphany. I realized that someday I, Joel Verstaendig, would be dead and someone would hopefully be saying Yizkor for me! I tried to imagine myself on my deathbed. What thoughts would I experience?\u00a0 Of what would I be proud? What would I regret?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 1856, John Greenleaf Whittier echoed these sentiments in his poem \u201cMaud Muller\u201d writing, \u00a0 \u201cFor all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, \u2018It might have been.\u2019\u201d King David, the author of Psalm 90, anticipated Whittier\u2019s statement about missed opportunities, and the birth of the existential philosophy of the 19th century. In this psalm, King David is asking God to grant his people the wisdom to understand that one\u2019s allotment of years is finite, and that one is best served by making the most of one\u2019s time. Furthermore, King David implies that this is an ongoing process and a lifelong challenge.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Adherence to the idea expounded in this verse of Psalms, can promote numerous possibilities for an individual. For example, it encourages one to be truly grateful for all of one\u2019s blessings, and motivates an individual to live focusing on that which is truly important.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As I sat in that Yizkor service in 2006, and every Yizkor Service since, I have acknowledged the fact that this prayer is not only for remembering and mourning the loss of my loved ones, but to also remind myself of the preciousness of each moment. King David\u2019s seemingly simple verse, \u201cTeach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom\u201d is exquisitely profound and is worthy of much contemplation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":61837,"id":61837,"title":"1kings6-calendar","filename":"1kings6-calendar.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/1kings6-calendar.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/biblical-and-rabbinic-chronology\/1kings6-calendar\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"1kings6-calendar","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":61836,"date":"2019-08-26 10:21:39","modified":"2022-02-04 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