I have just read this book in my language. I really wanted to publish on my blog a part of the book that meant a lot to me, so I asked a pen-friend of mine from New York to write me that part of the book in English (thank you!).
How then, I asked the Reb, can you avoid the second death?
"In
the short run," he said, "the answer is simple. Family. It is through
my family that I hope to live on for a few generations. When they
remember me, I live on. When they pray for me, I live on. All the
memories we have made, the laughs and the tears."
"But that, too, is limited."
How so?
He sang the next sentence.
"Ifff....I've
done a good jobbb, then I'll be re-mem-bered one generation, maybe
two.....but e-ven-tu-alllly....they're gonna say, "What was his naaame
again?"
At first I protested. Then I stopped. I realized I
did not know my great-grandmother's name. I'd never seen my
great-grandfather's face. How many generations does it take, even in
close-knit families, for the fabric to unravel?
"This is why," the Reb said, "faith is so
important. It is a rope for us all to grab, up and down the mountain. I
may not be remembered in so many years. But what I believe and have
taught----about God, about our tradition - that can go on. It comes
from my parents and their parents before them. And if it stretches to
my grandchildren and to their grandchildren, then we are all, you
know...."
Connected?
"That's it."
***
I had 4 great-grandmothers & 4 great-grandfathers. And out of 8 names I know only one of them (I know the name of my maternal grand-mother's mother).
So - no big deal actually if my name will be forgotten sooner as normally.
