"Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth. " -Lou Gehrig
Lou Gehrig uttered these words when he found out he had ALS and could no longer play in Major League Baseball. Moses sort of does the same thing this week. He is leaving the people he has lead through the desert. This double portion contains everything before Moses makes his Lou Gehrig speech. The Israelites arrive at Yankee Stadium. The microphones and television cameras are set up. Just as Moses open his mouth, the portion ends.
All things considered, Moses is 120 years old and nearly leaving his people Israel. God tells Moses to fetch up Joshua to pass down the legacy of the Torah and being a prophet. Everything God says makes sense. Last week, God talked about blessings and curses for observing Torah. This week God went into more detail of how to receive a curse or blessing.
Moses is 120 years old. According to my grandparents, we are old as we hit 80. 120 is ancient. Moses has seen the generation that actually left the land of Egypt weaken and die off. Now, God proclaims it is Moses' time to move on. 120 years of wisdom, and 120 years of smiles, laughs, tears, and just experiences. Do all these elements just disappear as we do?
Death is such a nebulous concept. Surely, it can not be the end! Or is it? I consider the vagueness a pleasure. "Back to Future" teaches us best how we can not know too much about our own destiny. For example, Moses destroyed the original Ten Commandments. God told him that he would never be able to enter the Land of Israel because of the sin he had committed on Mount Sinai. Standing in Moses' shoes in that moment, devastation would overcome my lifetime on this planet.
In the afternoons at Camp Shomria, different activities were given to us to choose. They were called חוגים, clubs. My chug was Chug X. It pertained to older campers sitting in a circle each afternoon discussing texts or issues in the world. Ice coffee was even available some days for scholars in the discussion. One day this very topic was the discussion. What happens after death?
Most of the bunch predicted that dying will be identical of being unconscious, just forever. I tend to hope there is something more. I believe in heaven and hell, but I am not quite sure what deeds get you where. Someone like Albert Einstein. He was a genius, but he was the genius who figured out how to massacre millions very quickly. Where does Moses belong? Where do we?
it is funny you use this quote. When I had the accident and knew I was going to be alright, I started to feel lucky. Lucky in the sense that I get to know how to appreciate the many special things in my life and not to take for granted the rest.
ReplyDeleteI really believe you live on in the people that you matter too. it is the memories that you set upon those people or the values you place in others that is how I believe you live on. There will always be a part of your mother and I in both Rachel and you.