Yom Kippur, Steve Jobs, And Knowing/Doing What Matters

Steve Jobs 1955-2011

I never knew Steve Jobs, and I haven’t been an Apple fangirl until very recently.  But his death, his oh so too early death, coming so close to Yom Kippur, has intensified my sense of this holiest of Jewish holidays.  There’s absolutely no connection between Steve Jobs’ death and Yom Kippur, but in my mind they are now linked forever because both events urge us to reflection.

Both events reinforce the idea that each day is precious, each of our behaviors/words/deeds matters, and each of us is called to a higher purpose.  As Mr. Jobs battled ill health and faced his own mortality, his own words tell us that he became very conscious of how he spent his time and with whom. 

For those of us who are Jewish, while we are alive, Yom Kippur is our own chance to rewrite the script.  In fact, Yom Kippur requires of us that we stop, reflect on how we are living in relationship to others as well as in relationship to the ideals we’ve been taught.  It is the time when we commit ourselves to doing better, being more of what we should be, and making good on our responsibility of Tikkun Olam (“to fix the world”).