Song of Humans

I had the piece written, ready on schedule. It’s never nice to mess with the magazine’s production schedule, but especially at this time of year, when the calendar is a bunch of half-days and much of the production staff is fasting.

Then, on Motzaei Rosh Hashanah I heard news that shook me; that piece was shelved and I’m trying, just trying, to take the heaviness in my heart and turn it into words.

Perhaps the most moving part of the Mussaf of the Yamim Noraim starts with Unesaneh Tokef: We speak of the power of the day, and the gravity of judgment. But there is hope — a person can deflect a harsh decree, for Hashem knows of our frail nature. Man is like a broken shard… like a breeze that blows away and dust that scatters, like a dream that flies away. It appears to be a reflective rumination on the transient nature of man’s existence: Now he is here, and now he is gone.

But suddenly, inexplicably, voices rise and the joy is back: V’Atah Hu Melech — But You are King, G-d Who lives for all eternity!