Almost everyone wants a rabbi to visit at the end of life. There is a sense that it is a sacred time

Working as a rabbi with hospice patients is a bit like dropping behind enemy lines in a parachute.

You know the essentials of your job — provide comfort, give halachic guidance, answer questions, and, most importantly, be present for the patients and their families. But in reality, you’re constantly jumping into a fluid situation where you have little information, and tensions are high. And you never really know what you’ll have to do until your feet hit the ground.

I knew little about Linda. She was in her eighties, had no husband or children, and was close to the end of her life. She seemed at peace when I walked into her room, but she was no longer speaking, and the only person by her side was Loretta, her non-Jewish caregiver.

Loretta was happy to see me. She had spoken with a distant relative of Linda’s and asked if they should call a rabbi to visit Linda, as she seemed to have little time left. This relative told Loretta that they were just “casual” Jews. Although Linda would have a Jewish funeral, they would not be calling a rabbi before she died.

Loretta, who wore a cross around her neck, found this explanation somewhat bewildering, which is why she was visibly relieved when I offered to say the traditional end-of-life prayers at Linda’s bedside. She felt like it was the appropriate thing to do.

I had with me a printout of the tefillos that are said at the very last moments of life: Shema, Baruch Sheim, and Hashem Hu Ha’Elokim. They were translated into English, so I gave Loretta a copy in case she wanted to follow along. I said these eternal tefillos as Loretta read along in English: Shema, once; Baruch Sheim, three times; Hashem Hu Ha’Elokim, seven times, followed by Hashem Melech.

To us, these tefillos are instantly familiar: They are the same words we say at the climax of N’eilah, itself the climax of Yom Kippur. But I sensed that Loretta was confused. She was expecting, I assume, something different. You would naturally assume that a prayer for the end of life would include a request for peace or a description of the passage to the World to Come.

But there is nothing about that in the prayers we read in those final moments.