For Eveything There is a Season....

Prince Charles continues to wait...His mother the Queen does not want to give up her reign...And now he is past sixty...When is it time to turn it over to our children?...When is it time to say "my life is done...let me share the time that's left investing myself in your life"?....The social psychologists call this 'ego transcendence'...the time when I make peace with the approaching end to my life by identifying myself with the life of my children or my community or my people.....

Its interesting to note as we read this weeks Parsha that Yaakov, unlike his fathers seems to know his time...Avraham lived till one hundred seventy five...Nowhere do we find that he blessed or instructed his children before he died...After Sarah died, at one hundred and thirty seven, he got married again and had a new family...While its true the Torah tell us that he seems to have prepared for his death by sending the new family away...from what we have in the Torah, there is no indication Avraham explicitly talked about his death with his children...blessed them..or instructed them. Avraham was to busy with his life and living(like the Queen?) to even think about changing his focus to his death and dying... Yitzchak does indeed bless Yaakov and Esav before his death..but sixty years before his death!...He seems to wrap up his life prematurely...Its hard to know how different things might have been had Yitzchak waited...At one hundred eighty..rather than one hundred and twenty...would he still have wanted to give Esav the blessing...Might he have known more...seen more?

Yaakov said to Joseph..."behold I am going to die..." as he asks him to be brought back for burial in Canaan...After blessings his sons the Torah tells us that he died immediately...Yaakov knew his time...The Midrash tell us that until Yaakov there was no illness in the world...Yaakov asked Hashem for it...presumably so he would know his time....He knew until when to be invested fully in living his life and when it was time to turn it over? "For everything there is a season...a time to be born and a time to die..."

It has been a very hard week for us...We have lost beautiful souls...the five chayalim who died sanctifying Hashem's name, fighting to protect His children and our land...Each of their stories is compelling...each a precious jewel. They had no time to say goodbye...They had no time to give over a blessing or instruction to those who remain...They had no time to change their focus from living to dying ...On the contrary, theirs was to fight till the last instant, living the heroic challenge before them...Yes for them too there was a 'time to die'...but not a season for dying...Unlike Yaakov their call was to never cease furthering the story of their life...they were not meant to turn it over to others...on the contrary theirs was to live bravely, as if they would not die...so we can be safe and our land secure...

So we have four models of 'dying' before us...Avraham, who might have been able to see his end but seems to have chosen not to...Yitzchak, who perhaps because he saw his father's missed opportunity, chose prematurely to give the blessing and wrap-up his life....Yaakov who chose his time well and lived his 'season for dying'...and our Chayalim who never had a season to die...and to whom we will remain forever grateful beyond words for living their life as if it was not about to end....so ours could continue...

May Hashem help us to live meaningfully and to know our seasons...So that we live as we are called to live and become who we are meant to be....

I received a message promoting a chavruta program for learning by phone in Israel for both men and for women that may be of interest to you...I pass on the email address..they have a website as well chavruta@b-2.co.il

Chazak Chazak V'nitchazaik!