The traditional practice when a subject’s family senses that his or her end is near, is to invite a quorum of ten adult males (preferably descendants of the subject) to bear witness to the subject’s confession and repentance prior to his expiration. The subject, along with those present, recites the acrostic Confession (viduy, from the daily Supplication): oshamnu, bogadnu, gozalnu (“we guilted, we betrayed, we robbed”), etc., the nishmas kol hai, and the Shema, among other passages. Ideally the subject would exhale his last breath upon uttering “ehod” —the last word of the Shema verse.
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