11 Elul
Our greatest problem is not how to continue but how to return. "How can I repay unto the Lord all his bountiful dealings with me?" (Psalms 116:12) When life is an answer, death is a home-coming.
The deepest wisdom man can attain is to know his destiny is to aid, to serve...This is the meaning of death: the ultimate self-dedication to the divine. Death so understood will not be distorted by the craving for immortality, for this act of giving away on man's part for God's gift of life.
From Man is not Alone by Abraham Joshua Heshel