A new Bigger in the Inside entry: "Stranger than fiction - You have to die"

"You're asking me to knowingly face my death?" "Yes." In the Torah, Moses, standing on the precipice of fulfillment, begs God for more life. It isn't fair, and we readers know it. How can God not? For the Rabbis who process their raw emotions and lived experiences through the prism of Torah, it is even more pronounced. In their imaginations, Moses offers to become a rock in the Promised Land, just to be witness that his life has meaning, that his People made it, that there is a future he helped realize. And isn't this fair? Don't we deserve to see our children's children's children? We do. But we won't. Even a "good death" after a long fulfilling life, an experience tradition describes as "pulling a hair through milk," is never timed perfectly, when evaluated through human experience. We are mortal coils surrounding a divine core, intimations of eternity coursing through our hearts, death a truth we cannot help but fight. And, in fact, we are called to live each day as our last, because it could be. Each not-last day should be so full of life force, pervaded by repair and commitment. Every action should hold the urgency of mortality. Yes, I will die. I really don't want to. Especially not now, when life is so very precious. May we feel this way often, energized by our limited time enough so that we do not miss the glorious poetry of today. #StrangerThanFiction #BiggerOnTheInside