This past שבת/shabbat, we read פרשת אחרי מות - קדושים. I love the two names of this double פרשה/portion: after death and holiness. If we put the two titles together and add in the next words of the second portion we get אחרי מות קדושים תהיו, after death you shall be holy. Judaism is not about death, or death being a sanctification. We are all about life and this world. We believe very deeply in living in this lifetime and making the most of it. SO then how do I explain those words? After death, you shall be holy. It is all about how we respond to death and loss. It is all about the capability to continue and to sanctify the lives of those who came before us through living lives they too would have been proud of. We become holy by being the next link in the chain and by keeping the world a beautiful place as it was when our loved ones were here.
I grew up in the 80s and 90s and if I was to create a soundtrack to my life I would have to include the Beastie Boys. I have always loved their music, and I have always enjoyed their fun lyrics. Trying to find a way of honoring one of their members who just last Friday lost his battle with cancer is not easy because the substance of their lyrics is never clear, and more often is an exercise in rhyming. With all of that said, there is one song that sticks out to me right now in summing up the world in their eyes, and a positive way for all of us, Alive. "Dip dip dive so-socialize, Open up your ears and clean out your eyes, If you learn to love you're in for a surprise, It could be nice to be alive." This is the refrain throughout the song that addresses their political views and their love of diversity and NYC. What I think is significant about this line is the similarity between love and live. We get in ruts at times, and begin to feel lost. We look for light and do not find it. When things are tough we don't see any positive. And then we learn to love the simple things, the diverse things and the world, and we realize how nice it is to be alive. There is a Yiddish saying about a man who cried he had no shoes, until he saw a man who had no feet. We allow ourselves to walk around feeling low, and what we must do is walk around and embrace the majestic world that God has given us. The tragedy is that we spend to many of our moments feeling and doing things that we would never be happy knowing it was our last. We spend too much time and too much energy on hatred and separation. We spend too little time coming together, and too much time growing apart. MCA lived to be 47 years old... That is far too young. People die at all ages... Few people are ever ready for death because they have failed to see what it means to be alive. This world is ours to make work and make beautiful. The next time you are left with a choice to love/embrace or hate/push aside, ask yourself what your decision says about you and the way you see being alive. "Open up your ears and clean out your eyes, if you learn to love you're in for a surprise, it could be nice to be alive."
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