This reading from the Rosh Hashana prayer book used at our Reform Jewish congregation provides a comforting message – death is not the end.
To Awake
by Rabbi Richard N. Levy
To awake from sleep each morning
recalls Your mystifying promise
that death is not the end,
but when this world awakens to the messianic dawn
souls and bodies will somehow join together once again
in one grand reunion of the human race.
When I awoke this morning
It was as though that mystery was rehearsed
For as I gradually emerged from sleep
My soul became aware of my body once again
In a small but wondrous reunion of my own humanity.