From Ask to Task

“Do good, take care of your environment. Take care of this wonderful country” Ariel wrote in his final wishes, before falling in Lebanon this year at age 20. “Don’t fall for the influences of society. Do well and good to people – that’s the most important thing there is!” He concludes, “Give things back in a better way that you received them.”

Whenever Debbie and I come to Israel, she faithfully insists we visit Mt. Herzl’s National Cemetery. It’s sacred time. Nothing quite measures up to pausing to honor our best and brightest. To cherish their last full measure of devotion. Yesterday’s visit was poignant. 

For me, the inscription at the base of a grave stirs me most. It’s a family’s tender-response to their child’s final wishes. “Your magical smile touched us all, you lit up our lives, our precious angel; you kissed us and then departed.”

In this week’s portion of Torah, we’re taught how to respond to young people’s uncertainty about the future. “When in the future your child asks, what’s the meaning of these laws and practices? Tell them, we were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt” (Deut. 6:20). God’s might brought-about our liberation. Going forward, it’s incumbent on us to be agents of liberation. About the future? When your child asks, give them purposeful tasks. 

Tomorrow is indeed full of uncertainties. Perhaps it’s no accident that our people’s story originates from low points. Upward is the way from ask to task.  

Before we departed yesterday, I caught a glimpse of a sister composing a message to her 19 year-old brother. Moments later, I heard her cry out. I turned back to be surprised. She was actually laughing over somebody else’s message, wagging her finger back and forth between her brother and the message, as she called others over to share in the moment. 

The conversations continue. So do the commitments. Am Yisrael Chai.