What if You Knew the Day of Your Death?

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I feel like just leaving that title as your table-talk question of the week and ending right here.

But let's flush it out with a story.

I'm guessing that you never heard of Abraham de Moivre (1667-1754).

First, he was a Huguenot, who were allegedly descended from Spanish Jews. (See also this.)

Second, he was a ground-breaking mathematician who fled the religious persecutions of Louix XIV (the "Sun King") and befriended Isaac Newton among others. His legacy includes a seminal work on probability theory.

(He understood probability so well that earned a living consulting for London gamblers.)

So according to legend, as he grew older, he became lethargic and needed longer sleeping hours. He noted that he was sleeping an extra 15 minutes each night and estimated that when the sleep time reached 24 hours, he would die, which should occur on November 27, 1754 - and it did.

De Moivre wasn't the only one (Mark Twain and a few others have done so). 

Maybe that's the power of suggestion?

But it still is a good question for the table.

Would you want to know the date of your death in advance? (And if not the day, perhaps the hour?)
What would you do if you did?
Would it affect how you eat?
Would it affect how you sleep?
Would it affect how you work?
Would it affect how you play?
Would you do more stargazing?
Would you try to read only good news?


Shabbat Shalom


PS - This week's podcast is "How to Change a Habit"
There are ten ways to hear it:

iTunes/iPhone … YidPod … Spotify … Google Podcasts … Pocketcasts … Stitcher … Podbean … Amazon Podcasts … RSS … or just on the web.

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