I Am the Most Fortunate of Men

By Rabbi Zev Schostak

I am that most fortunate of men for I am eternal.
Others live merely in the world of today;
I live in the world of tomorrow.
Others find purpose in the transient and the temporal;
I find meaning in the enduring and the eternal.
For I am charged with that most sacred mission - to
transmit all that our forebears lived for, loved for,
and died for to the next generation.
I span the generations - making the wisdom
of the past live now so that the future will
have meaning. I make wisdom live,
for I am no mere bearer of knowledge.
I do not simply teach the mind;
I reach the heart and - when I reach the heart;
I touch the soul. To those who say
two generations hence what will I be
if not a distant memory, I respond:
Though the mind fades, memories linger.
Though the body fails, the spirit prevails.
Though the scroll burns, the letters 
dance in the air.

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