Death

Death comes slowly or quickly, fairly or unfairly, easily or with suffering, and we wonder: What is happening? What is ending and what will remain? What will become of the connections between my human soul and the people I love?

            Beyond the silence of the grave, what words can we speak?  We know only this: something reaches an ending, and something does endure. 

            “Ah, the people are grass,” declared Isaiah.  “The grass withers, the flower fades.  But the word of our God will rise up forever.”   By “the word of God,” the prophet did not mean lifeless markings on an old scroll, nor venerated words of scripture memorized and chanted without understanding.

The Word of God is Torah, the divine human process through which we give ourselves to each other.  Torah is any word bearing within it the living human soul.   A mother singing her child to sleep with a lullaby out of her childhood.  Questions posed by teachers and students, kindling each other into illumination.  A grandfather bringing an old story to life.  The wisdom of kindness, courage, and humor that a parent imparts to their child.

These are just a few of the human words which are Torah, the Word of the living God.

The living human soul can travel far past the boundary of one human life.  Years after the grass of this body withers, long after the flower of this flesh fades, the deepest words of truth we have spoken will return again and again to life.