The Zohar Hakadosh asks: A person only dies on one day. Why does it say that the “days” for Yisroel to die were drawing close (with “days” being in the plural)?
The Zohar answers that when Hashem determines that it is time for a person to leave this world, all of the days of the person’s life come close to Him and they are all calculated. It concludes, “Fortunate is a person if all of his days come before the King with no shame or embarrassment, so that none of them are rejected. Such days are ‘drawn close’ by Hashem. Woe to the wicked people. Their days are full of sins and cannot be drawn close to Hashem.”
Accordingly, it is stated that the days of Yisroel were being drawn close to Hashem as he prepared to die. This is not referring to the day of his death. Rather, it means that all of his days drew close to Hashem at this time.
Sefer Otzros Hatorah relates that Rav Moshe Leib of Sosov zy”a once traveled to raise funds for a mitzvah and was away from home for quite a while. When he finally got home, his children surrounded him and asked, “Tatte, what gift did you bring back for us?”
Since he had nothing to give, he tried to push them off but when they continued to plead with him for a gift, he suddenly fainted. When he was revived, he was asked why he had such a reaction. Why did his children’s request for a present cause him to collapse?
He answered, “I didn’t faint because of their request. Rather, they caused me to think about how it will look when I go ‘home’ from my long journey in this world and meet my Father in Heaven. He will ask me, ‘What did you bring Me from your long trip? How much Torah and mitzvos did you bring for Me?’ It will be so embarrassing if I don’t have much to give Him...”
