Daniel Lubetzky

This week’s quote of the week is an excerpt that I came across in the Yizkor Service on Yom Kippur and found particularly moving :

When I die give what’s left of me away

to children and old men that wait to die.

And if you need to cry,

cry for your brother walking the street beside you.

And when you need me, put your arms around anyone

and give them what you need to give me.

I want to leave you something,

something better than words or sounds.

Look for me in the people I’ve known or loved,

and if you cannot give me away,

at least let me live in your eyes and not in your mind.

You can love me best by letting hands touch hands,

and by letting go of children that need to be free.

Love doesn’t die, people do.

So, when all that’s left of me is love,

give me away.

                                                              – Meritt Malloy

I also appreciated another concept from the prayer book that speaks of the power of generations, and provides an element of comfort when thinking of those who are deceased:

If some messenger were to come to us with the offer that death should be overthrown, but with the one inseparable condition that birth should also cease; if the existing generation were given the chance to live forever, but on the clear understanding that never again would there be a child,or a  youth, or first love, never again new persons with new hopes, new ideas, new achievements; ourselves for always and never any others- could the answer be in doubt?