How do you learn to live? By not taking life for granted - Preparing for the New Year (6 of 10)

Zochreinu lachayim. Remember us for life. It was more than forty years ago. We were on our honeymoon and we were passing through a little Italian town called Paestum. It has some roman ruins, and a lovely beach, and that morning, a glittering, heartbreakingly beautiful sea.

The problem was: I couldn't swim. But as I looked I saw people were standing hundreds of yards into the water and it still only came up to their knees. So, thinking it was safe, I walked out hundreds of yards and sure enough the water came up to my knees. Then I started walking back to the shore, and suddenly I found myself out of my depth. I'd walked into a dip in the sea bed. No one was close. I was about to drown. And as I went under for the fifth time I remember thinking, "What's the Italian for help?" and "What a way to begin a honeymoon."

Someone saved me. How? Who? I never knew. By then I was more or less unconscious. But this I have known ever since: Every day is a gift from God. When we know that and feel it in our bones, that's when we really live.

"Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is a kind of clarion call, a summons to the Ten Days of Penitence which culminate in the Day of Atonement... Yom Kippur is the supreme moment of Jewish time, a day of fasting and prayer, introspection and self-judgement. At no other time are we so sharply conscious of standing before God, of being known."

To help prepare for the New Year, the Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks has recorded a series of ten thought-provoking videos, each reflecting on a particular idea associated with this time in the Jewish calendar or on an individual prayer said on Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur.

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[victorahoffman]

Powerful, Meaningful, Inspirational, and most of all so true. Rabbi, all I can say is God saved you for a reason, and may He give you the strength to continue that reason for many years to come!! Gmar Tov

[chmoss]

Great message. Also reinforces the Talmudic precepts:

A parent is required to teach a child three things (Kiddushin 29a). 1) Torah 2) To prepare them for some way to make a living 3) Teach them how to swim.