{"id":61508,"date":"2019-08-20T12:53:23","date_gmt":"2019-08-20T09:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=61508"},"modified":"2023-03-14T12:19:36","modified_gmt":"2023-03-14T10:19:36","slug":"meaning-in-mortality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/meaning-in-mortality\/","title":{"rendered":"Meaning In Mortality\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[519,383,401,381],"acf":{"old_id":"61508","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33992,"related_cahpter":"289","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"\u201cI am going the way of all the earth; be strong and be a man\u201d","content":"

If you had to reduce all wisdom into a single sentence (and I would discourage you from doing that), I can\u2019t think of a better single epigram than the one King David offers on his deathbed to his son, Solomon.<\/span><\/p>\n

Everything follows the same trajectory. We come into being, thrive for a while, fall apart and then cease to be. This path is the one constant for all existent becomings, be they galaxies, planets, mountains, oceans, plants, animals, or people. All of us have a beginning and an end. It is indeed the \u201cway of all the earth\u201d and there are no exceptions. Mortality, finitude, forms the framing of our being. Whatever meaning we create is bounded by this surrounding ocean of non-existence and may well also be inspired by this finitude.<\/span><\/p>\n

Humanity is unique in the extent of our awareness of birth and death. It does appear that some mammals are aware of death in its concrete manifestations, when they lose a loved one. But we don\u2019t have access to the mind of a dolphin or an elephant to know if they are aware that they too will one day die. We can\u2019t enter into their thoughts to see if they conceive of mortality itself.<\/span><\/p>\n

But we do. We know that everything has a beginning, a birth. Everything has an end, a death. And we measure the span of our life in that intervening period after birth and prior to death.<\/span><\/p>\n

David doesn\u2019t invite us to pretend that we are immortal. He doesn\u2019t diminish the reality of death. Instead, he invites us to take a stance of bold honesty and shocking courage. In the face of the certitude that we must die, he says, muster the courage to flourish nonetheless. Find somehow the strength to be a mensch.<\/span><\/p>\n

The tale is told of a Hasidic master who prayed for mercy for a suffering person, even at the expense of his own divine reward, and a heavenly voice granted the request but announced that he had forfeited eternal life. His response was to double down on gratitude: \u201cAll my life I never knew if my service to God and people was motivated by self-interest or not, but from this moment on, I know that my service is pure.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

David asks us to reach that level of selfless service: to do good without thought to reward, to love each other with all the tenacity we can must, even if only for the flickering moment of our life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It is the way of all the earth to perish. It is the glory of humanity to rise, nonetheless, to love, and to live in the shadow of that destination.<\/span><\/p>\n

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