A thoughtful essay by our member, Hershel Allerhand
“On Rosh Hashana it is written/and on Yom Kippur it is sealed/ . . . who will live and who will die.”
This refrain appears in the liturgy a number of times and is usually accompanied by the commentary that God opens the books of life and death and, depending on our actions in the previous year and the sincerity of our repentance, inscribes us in one of the books.
Our Sages have another and beautiful take on the tradition. The book of death does not refer to us but to the souls of our departed parents and ancestors. The book of life refers to us. Did we treat people with dignity, respect and compassion? Did we try to see the “image of God” in our fellow human beings as commanded by the Torah? Did we control our drives and passions so that the image of God was manifested in us? If we did, then our good deeds are credited to the souls of our parents, who by their teaching and example showed us the way.