Over the years I have often asked friends and acquaintances what they would choose to do with their time if they knew for certain that they were embarking on the final day of their lives. The people I asked were drawn from different nationalities, cultures and backgrounds; some were at least nominally religious, while others were not. Their answers however were on the whole quite similar. Typical responses involved eating one or more favorite meal in the company of friends or loved ones, getting drunk to the point of oblivion, visiting a specific beauty spot or (in the case of males only) engaging in as much sexual activity as could be crammed into the closing hours of one’s life on Earth.
To my recollection, none of those asked made any mention of repentance, asking forgiveness of those whom they had upset or wronged, or doing any good deeds for the benefit of others. Why was this so? Probably because their preoccupation with their imminent departure from this World quite overshadowed their thoughts of what might be required in order to expedite their entry to the next one. Quite possibly, if it had been a Heavenly Voice that had asked the same question and not a relative stranger, the answers might be been otherwise. Notwithstanding this, one can see the wisdom of Rabbi Eliezer’s call to repent: while clearing one’s conscience and making peace with one’s Creator is of critical importance to anyone who possesses a religious soul, it’s not the first thing one thinks of when it comes to the crunch.
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