How to die Nicely

Yaakov gathered his feet into his bed when he died. The mekubalim talk about why, and we are talking about this along the level of p’shat. The Rashbam and Ohr Hachaim explain that this teaches us that Yaakov had strength and life even in his dying moments to do as he wished. Why indeed did he wish to do this?

One suggestion we had was that dying means meeting with Hashem. When one goes to Hashem he ought to be in a becoming position. He should not be hanging halfways off his bed; he should be nicely arranged on his bed. One of the g’dolim once said that he worked a whole lifetime in order to die properly! Dying is not merely a passive loss of life: it is a dynamic event that a person is participating in!

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