Towards the end of the movie (stop now if you haven't seen it!) Willis realizes that the reason his young client sees ghosts is because the boy is being used as an agent by the dead, to help them finish a task that they were unable to finish in their own lifetimes, or to right a wrong that they themselves couldn't correct during their lives.

I wonder how many of us would behave differently if we knew that we could contact an agent after our own death to complete that which remains unfinished. I suppose many of us would do the easy thing, and not complete that which needs to be completed. In fact, many of us already behave in a manner consistent with this premise, although perhaps not for this reason; many responsibilites are unpleasant, and we simply don't want to face them. Maybe someone else will pick up the pieces that we have left on the ground.

We have just completed the Yamim Noraim, the High Holy Days, and I can think back very clearly to my favorite t'filah, the gorgeous Sh'ma Koleinu. Sh'ma Koleinu is a wake-up call to God, but, I would argue, it is more of a wake-up call to all of Israel. "Hear our voice, Lord...in mercy, accept our prayer." I love hearing more and more congregants each year sing this t'filah with me on Yom Kippur. The setting I sing, composed by Max Helfman, is, for me, the highlight of the service. After the Yom Kippur service, a member told me that when I sang these words, it penetrated her heart, opening it up to God.

This is the first step. To open our hearts to God, to let God into the places that God wants desperately to dwell. But this isn't enough. We must take these wonderful feelings and translate the feelings into action. We must follow God's mitzvot in order to motivate us to change, to take this one opportunity, our lives, and make whole that which is now unwhole. To rely on ourselves to finish that which must be finished. To complete the uncompleted.