Wherever I may die, let me be buried not among the rich and famous, but among plain Jewish people, the workers, the common folk, so that my tombstone may honor the simple graves around me, and the simple graves honor mine, even as the plain people honored their folk writer in his lifetime. ... My last wish for my successors and my prayer to my children: Take good care of your mother, beautify her old age, sweeten her bitter life, heal her broken heart; do not weep for me -- on the contrary, remember me with joy; and the main thing -- live together in peace, bear no hatred for each other, help one another in bad times, think on occasion of other members of the family, pity the poor, and when circumstances permit, pay my debts, if there be any. Children, bear with honor my hard-earned Jewish name and may God in Heaven sustain you ever, Amen. -- Sholom Aleichem (1859-1916)* * * * * * * * *
Judaism, my child, is the struggle to bring down God upon earth, a struggle for the sanctification of the human heart. This struggle your people wages not with physical force but with spirit, with sincere, heartfelt prayers, and by constant striving for truth and justice.So do you understand, my child, how we are distinct from others and wherein lies the secret of our existence on earth?
Knowing this, will your heart still be heavy, my child? Will you still say you cannot stand your fate? But you must, my child, for so were you commanded; it is your calling. This is your mission, your purpose on earth.
You must go to work alongside people of other nations...and you will teach them that they must come to a brotherhood of nations and to a union of all nations with God.
You may ask, "How does one speak to them?" This is how: "Thou shalt not murder; thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not covet; love thy neighbor as thyself...." Do these things and through their merit, my child, you will be victorious. -- Published in the ghetto newspaper Warsaw-Krakow, 1940, signed only "Your Mother"
* * * * * * * * *
Follow the ways of your father and mother, just as they walked in the paths of their fathers and mothers:To love -- not just with words but actually with deeds -- the Jewish people, the Jewish language, and the Jewish way of life.
To speak Yiddish among yourselves and with Jews who know Yiddish.
To have no fear of being in the minority; avoid doing as others do for conformist reasons.
To conduct yourselves Jewishly -- observe Jewish customs, celebrate Shabbos and festivals, marry in the Jewish manner.
To be faithful to the Jewish people.
To stand up for the weak, the oppressed and the beaten.
To be plain, honest, trustworthy and punctual.
To live for not self only; to remember we are part of a large family -- the Jewish people -- and of a larger family still -- the human race.
Not to wait for someone else to do what is right, but begin yourself, as though the whole world is on your shoulders, as it were; as if the task were waiting for you to perform it. ...
In summary, be a true human being and a good Jew! -- Mordkhe Schaechter, May 5, 1979
* * * * * * * * *
