I commemorated Dad's memorial last week, on ו' בניסן, the sixth of the Hebrew month of Nissan. That is the day, a short while before Pesach (which starts tonight), that will retain the most meaning for me. The secular date of April 10 (or 9 really as he passed just before midnight) means more for most of Dad's loved ones. As this year that date falls on Pesach, a time of great joy in celebrating G-d freeing the Jews from Egypt and the cohesion of the Jewish people (and on holidays public mourning is to be avoided), I spent today reflecting and mourning. And I found these incredible, goose-bump-enducing words:
And so the teacher keeps teaching us: to keep fighting; to keep eating; to keep learning; to live every moment we are given; to greet the world and all its people hands white and black and brown and yellow and red as clay with curiosity, with compassion, with openness and wisdom, wonder and love. That was the music of Jerry Samuels' life. May it ever echo in ours.
אשירה ואזמרה לה'
That we might in his memory, make of our lives, a song of praise to G-d.
-Our amazing Rabbi David Stern, Temple Emanu-El
My eternal gratitude for Dad's lessons will quite simply always be accompanied by an eternal sadness that he's not with us anymore.
We have the gift of so much great material here on Dad's Myspace page. Many of the same words are on his CaringBridge page as well. Please reflect, learn, absorb, be inspired!
And as a friend in Jerusalem said after the Memorial Music Night last week, there's just nothing like having an amazing parent! So I'll keep his spirit going.
He'll be watching from upstairs as our two-time defending American League Champion Texas Rangers take on the hated White Sox in today's opener. This video of Nolan Ryan owning their new manager Robin Ventura will never get old...
This Year I celebrate Pesach in Jerusalem! This October let's see that World Series trophy finally come to Texas! Nothing but love from the holy city,
אריק/Eric
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