Viddui
Also called the deathbed confession.
The Jewish confession said near death, and on Yom Kippur by the whole congregation.
Viddui is a confession. The form most people mean by the name is the one said close to death, either by the dying person or on their behalf, and it ends by placing the person in God's hands.
The tradition is careful about how it is introduced. Saying it is not understood as a sign that death is certain, and the classical sources are explicit that many who have said it have recovered; a common framing is that many have confessed and lived.
The same word covers the communal confession recited repeatedly on Yom Kippur, which is said in the plural by everyone present regardless of what any individual has done.
Why the words are not here
A text whose setting matters more than almost any other here, and one where a wrong edition or a missing framing sentence could do real harm at a bedside. It waits for a reviewer credentialed in the tradition rather than for a transcription.
Every text on this site names the edition it came from and was checked against it twice. A prayer nobody can cite an edition for does not get printed here, however well known it is. The verification record lists what was held back and why, and how rights are established explains the test.
What we do hold
When is this prayer said?
The moments this prayer is associated with. Each page carries cited guidance on how different traditions meet that moment.
Which tradition is this prayer from?
This page describes a prayer and, where we hold one, prints a named edition of it. It does not tell you whether to say it, or when. That judgment belongs to someone credentialed in the tradition, and nobody has signed anything here.
Content last changed 15 October 2026. Dates come from this page’s own revision history, not from the last time the site was deployed.