Believing Jews have a mission in life and are in no hurry to experience what comes later
Sometimes, a single line from a classic text can define the essence of a culture. One of the most celebrated lines in modern English literature is by the renowned Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas: Do not go gentle into that good night/Rage, rage against the dying of the light….
This is a powerful clarion call not to surrender meekly to the infirmities of old age (the “dying of the light”) and to that which inexorably follows old age (“that good night”), but to fight it vigorously every step of the way down. The poem is a combination of melancholy at the inevitability of the night that follows the day, together with a desperate cry to hold on, literally, for dear life .
On the same subject of old age and beyond, King David, lehavdil, in his Tehillim 92:15 says: “Od yenuvun b’seivah… —The righteous will still be fruitful in old age, vigorous and fresh will they be….” His is a message not of anger and struggle with reality, but of calm and peace — not resistance, but optimism and acceptance.
Dylan Thomas is an eloquent advocate for this world and its innate worth. Do not passively leave this world, because, he writes, beyond this world is only darkness and night.
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