I Shall Live

”All of us,” 50-year-old Avida said 17 months ago while recovering in a Tel Aviv hospital. “All of us, we think that the time is going on until the end. But the time, it’s really short. And I told my friends at work, there’s no meeting after four o’clock in the afternoon. We’re not going to stay at work. We go home to our friends and family to make a good time, and good memories. What we have, it’s only people.”

He went on to tell Douglas Murray, who will soon visit us at KI, about the agony of watching his wife and son die in front of him in their safe room on October 7. “But even through his tears, he still wanted to draw some light from it. He had had 32 years with his wife, he said, and he had had the good fortune to have 15 years with his son. And this was what mattered.”

For Douglas, one of two biblical passages that continued to hum inside him throughout the year he spent in Israel, bearing witness to horrors and heroism, is found in Passover’s Hallel prayer. “I shall not die, but live” (Ps. 118:17). He keenly appreciates Judaism’s affinity for celebrating life even in the absence of lethal threats. We proclaim: L’chaim, Am Yisrael Chai. Even when treasuring a precious moment or milestone, our She’he’chiyanu blessing is named after the word life. We thank the One who keeps us in life.

As we prepare to conclude Passover this weekend, a couple of additional points are worthy of attention. The first comes from tomorrow’s portion of Torah. In the very first verse, we glimpse the terrible toll of war. “The people may have a change of heart when they see war” (Ex. 13:17). That toll is also emotionally dark. How can we make it not be too painfully dark, to draw some light as Avida was able to? By busying yourself with the good. 

Secondly, the psalmist in our verse has more to say: “I shall not die, but live and tell of God’s wondrous works” (Ps. 118:17). Our Living God cordially invites us to take up those works. As Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel reminds us: “The world consists, not of things, but of tasks.”

Time is indeed short. At least shorter than we think. May you and I assign our attention and our efforts to those tasks that are worthy of them. And may the light they emit be ambient for all people of good faith.