Why do we ask for another year of life?

Rabbi Landau explains that everybody wants more time. “Nobody says, ‘I've had enough years.’” We want another year, another ten, another twenty. But he asked himself: why? What do I want the extra time for?

“If I get another year and did exactly what I did this year, what exactly did I gain?” Maybe asking for more life is not only asking for more days, he says. “It's saying there is still something I want to do here. There is somebody I want to help, something I want to build, something that I myself have not finished becoming.”

So before asking whether you will get another year, there is another question: “What would another year of me be for?” And that, he says, “is exactly what we're praying for” when we say, “Zachreinu l'chaim... l'maancha Elokim chaim”: remember us for life, for Your sake, living God. The goal is to live a life worth living.

Also answered in this teaching

How can I make my prayer for life more than a request for time?

In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau suggests finishing the sentence, “Master of the world, give me life, so that I can...” and asking what you will do next year that you did not do last year. If you have an answer, you have a real request.

Going deeper: Rabbi Landau's teaching, level by level

Surface claim

Asking for another year means asking what that year would be for.

Fear, vulnerability, or tension

Another year lived exactly like the last one adds days but gains nothing.

Underlying need or longing

Behind the wish for more time is a wish to help someone, to build something, and to finish becoming who you are.

Deepest human truth

What are we really praying for when we ask for life?

A life worth living. In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau writes that an empty request says “give me another year,” while a real request says “I still have something to do here.”