It is heartbreaking to see the recent photograph of Martin Richard, a smiling 8-year-old boy, holding a sign that reads “No More Hurting People!”

The heartbreak is because Martin was the youngest of the Boston Marathon bombing victims. Some might say Martin’s tragic passing is no more catastrophic than the loss of 23- year-old Lu Lingzi or 29-year-old Krystle Campbell or 26- year-old M.I.T. police officer Sean Collier. But there is something extra compelling about the innocence of a child’s smile and the ideal of a child’s message when that very child is victim to senseless terror.

We are shocked so often by irrational acts of violence that we have to wonder why we continue to be shocked. Whatever evil drives such heinous acts of cowardice, our response must be toward love and justice, not hatred or revenge. At times like these, even love and justice seem polar opposites, but in Christ they are inseparable.

Roman Catholic Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley at Boston’s Cathedral of the Holy Cross last week spoke of the pain and looked ahead to what he called our “spiritual recovery.” In so doing, he acknowledges that even when the human spirit is trampled, God’s Spirit prevails.

This explains the resilience of people sustained by faith to courageously rebound from tragedy, to persevere in the face of uncertainty, and to somehow do so with compassion and restraint.

The teaching to respond in this way comes from Jesus….. Jesus says, “I say to you to listen, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat, do not withhold even your shirt …

Do to others as you would have them do to you … Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven.” {Luke 6} Christ’s teaching is challenging and following Christ is challenging …

Do to others as you wish others do to you presumes good intentions. We know some children are raised to love life while others are raised to loath and murder.

We know the human instinct to a sucker punch is not to turn the other cheek. Many of us feel the desired response to a terrorist is to bomb the bomber, to match force with superior force.

The Good News for the world is Jesus is more than a Teacher. He is the omnipotent force to turn the downward spiral upward to the heavens. He surpasses evil on his way to the cross where he conquers sin and death once and for all.

To people of all ages and all nations, he says, “Pick up your cross and follow me. You will be sorrowful but your sorrow will turn to joy. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you.”

Each week at church, we share the peace of Christ with each other. We desperately need to share the peace of Christ in the world, especially when and where it is not easy. May God’s Spirit prevail and may there be no more hurting people …

Please come this Saturday @ Six or Sunday morning at 8:30 or 11 a.m. to hear the message “Love Wins!” based on John 13: 34 – 35.

Reverend Andrews is Minister at Community Presbyterian Church of Deerfield Beach (Steeple on the Beach) located five blocks south of Hillsboro on A1A. See more at www.communitych.org or on Facebook.

If you look at the movies that are playing in the theatre, you will find one called “Hava Nagila.” I haven’t seen it yet, but I have heard that it lifts your spirits and that is not too surprising as Hava Nagila basically means “let us celebrate” or “let us rejoice.”

And, if we are wise enough to count our blessings, then we have much to celebrate. In fact, we just celebrated Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel Independence Day, and, in case you didn’t know it, this year, we marked Israel’s 65th year as a modern nation.

There have been several movies made over the years that have an extremely moving scene where, after all the struggles of the Jewish People, after all the yearnings to return to our historic homeland, David Ben Gurion announced the formation of the modern state.

It was on Nov. 29 in the year 1947 that the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a resolution for establishment of Israel as an independent Jewish state. The U.N. urged the inhabitants to take the needed steps on their part to put this plan into effect.

And that is exactly what the Jewish people did. Sadly, even in Israel’s Declaration of Independence, the new country had to include the words, “In the midst of wanton aggression, we yet call upon the Arab inhabitants of the state of Israel to return to the ways of peace, and play their part in the development of the state, with full and equal citizenship and due representation in its bodies and institutions–provisional or permanent.”

The Declaration went on to say, “We offer peace and unity to all the neighboring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all.”

This was to be the fulfillment of a dream that Jews had been dreaming for generations. After all, as the Declaration states, “the land of Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish people.” It was here that our “spiritual, religious and national identity was formed.”

Even after being exiled from the land, our people “remained faithful to it in all the countries of dispersion, never ceasing to pray and hope for a return and a restoration of our national freedom.”

I know many of our Christian brothers and sisters have been very supportive of Israel and the Jewish people, so I thought you might like to see the last paragraph of the Declaration, which states, “With trust in Almighty G-d, we set our hand to this Declaration, at this Session of the Provisional State Council, in the city of Tel Aviv, on this Sabbath eve, the fifth of Iyar, 5708, the fourteenth day of May, 1948.”

That’s right, “With trust in the Almighty G-d!”

I thought about that a lot recently, especially as I focused on the word “Independence.” I broke that single word into two words and got “IN DEPENDENCE.”

The state of Israel lives … The United States lives … and each of us as individuals lives … IN DEPENDENCE. We live IN DEPENDENCE of G-d and we live IN DEPENDENCE on each other. If there is to be peace between all peoples and all countries of the world, we would do well to remember that. No one country, no one people and no one person is so great, so powerful, that they can do it on their own. We need each other and we need G-d Almighty.

“Mi Chamocha … Who is like unto You, O Lord among the Mighty?”

Shalom my friends,

Rabbi Craig H. Ezring

Rabbi Ezring is a member of the National Association of Jewish Chaplains and of the Association of Professional Chaplains, He works professionally in this capacity with a number of healthcare facilities in the area, and with hospice. He is the Spiritual Leader of Temple Beth Israel of Deerfield Beach.

Do you ever get tired, weary, or just worn out? I think we all go through times in life where we are just beat up and beat down. I guess then the question would be, what in the world do we do in order to get through those tough times without having a nervous breakdown?

If you ask anyone from our church, they should all know that I say often, “NEVER GIVE UP – NEVER GIVE IN – NEVER QUIT.” This is one of those things in life that we have to remind ourselves of every day and even sometimes more than one time in the same day.

GALATIANS 6:9, NLT

9 So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.

I believe we need to simply trust God even more with our lives and that includes the things that wear us down. We need to talk to Him about everything. We also need to learn how to rest and have fun.

Sometimes, life is tough and hard, so if we are going to work hard, then we need to play hard. We need to find things that help us to have fun and relax. Enjoying a hobby or sports activity is not a sin; it will actually help you deal with issues when you are fully relaxed and rested. Lastly, we need to let things go that we have no control over. I shared a story with you a couple years back, and it is very fitting with this story, so I wanted to share it again.

The Donkey

One day, a farmer’s donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours, as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally, he decided the animal was old and the well needed to be covered up anyway; it just wasn’t worth it to retrieve the donkey. So, he invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly.

Then, to everyone’s amazement, he quieted down. A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well and was astonished at what he saw. With every shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up. As the farmer’s neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up. Soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and trotted off!

Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up. Each of our troubles is a stepping-stone. We can get out of the deepest well, just by not stopping and by never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up! Always remember, you WIN! When you are resting and trusting God, then He is working.

I was reading a story during Pesach about a Seder plate and a man who had to go through the horrors of Holocaust. This man knew that he was about to be taken to the camps. He knew that Hitler wanted to destroy any remnants of Judaism. So he took that Seder plate and buried it.

If he somehow survived, his plan was to come back and get that holy item. And, somehow, this man miraculously survived the horrors of the camps. He went and dug up that Seder plate and used it for many years to come each and every Passover.

But when he died, his children took that Seder plate to a shop to get rid of it, as Pesach and Judaism were of little import to them.

How often I go to meet a family after a death has occurred. I go to counsel and console … and, I go to get information for the eulogy. Of course, tears are not unusual at such times. In fact, the tears often fall like rain as the family tells me how much they loved their father or their mother, or whoever it is that has passed.

And yet, in the midst of telling me how important their loved one was to them, all too often, I am sadly asked another question before the funeral takes place. The surviving family members will hand me their father’s prayer shawl, or his tefillin, or his yarmulke. They will hand me their mother’s candle holders or the covering she used for her head or for the challah. They will hand me Holy Books of Torah, perhaps even a Bible with several generations of the past Hebrew names written inside. And they will ask, “Rabbi, can you get rid of this for me?”

But, my dear friends, these are not items to get rid of. These are precious holy family heirlooms that should be passed down Dor L’Dor, from generation to generation and they should not just be passed down, they should be used, and each time they are used, I hope and pray that you feel your dearly departed loved ones looking down upon you shepping nachus, filled with pride, that you will continue to use these heirlooms that meant so much to them.

May these and other holy family heirlooms hold great meaning in your lives as well. May you be filled with beautiful memories each time you use them, and may you pass them down to your children and your children’s children who, G-d willing, will not only keep them as heirlooms, but will continue to use them and find deep meaning in them.

I’m not telling you to become a hoarder of everything from the past, but I am telling you to choose wisely. Some things you can surely get rid of, but some things are meant to be held, to be used, and to be cherished.

Shalom, my friends,

Rabbi Craig H. Ezring

Rabbi Ezring is a member of the National Association of Jewish Chaplains and of the Association of Professional Chaplains, He works professionally in this capacity with a number of healthcare facilities in the area, and with hospice. He is the Spiritual Leader of Temple Beth Israel of Deerfield Beach.

On Easter, we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection, but what does this amazing life-yielding miracle have to do with a bunny and painted eggs?

The short answer is, “Maybe not so much!”

Every year, Christians revisit Jesus and his disciples entering Jerusalem to celebrate Passover, the Jewish holy season that commemorates the Hebrews’ release from slavery. And, every year, we study our Lord’s arrest, crucifixion, death and resurrection.

It’s no surprise people of Jewish origin were among the first to celebrate the resurrection, likely as a new facet of the Passover festival. In fact, the Easter celebration, Pascha, in Aramaic and Greek, is derived from the Hebrew Passover. An early sacred ritual of Easter was the lighting of the Pashcal candle. You can see where this candle derives its name. The Pashcal candle symbolizes light out of darkness similar to the Christ candle of Christmas.

Originally, Easter was celebrated two days after Passover but this meant Easter could fall on any day of the week. In 325 A.D., Roman Emperor Constantine and the Council of Nicea ruled Easter would always fall on Sunday, this being the day of the week Christ rose from the dead.

It was also the Council of Nicea that decided Easter would be celebrated the first Sunday following the full moon after the spring equinox. Easter would then always fall on a Sunday between March 22 and April 25. As Christianity spread through Europe, pagan European customs began to emerge and spread. In fact, some argue that Easter may have received its modern -day name from Eostre, the goddess of spring and fertility, which brings us to the Easter bunny and Easter egg.

Easter bunnies and Easter eggs were a perfect match, although one probably not made in heaven. The fertile bunny, at least in connection with Easter, didn’t show up until about the 16th century, but had long been a symbol of new life. Eggs, on the other hand, have been a symbol of life and birth for thousands of years.

The advent of Easter bunnies and Easter eggs led to children being told, if they were well-behaved, the Easter bunny would visit and leave Easter eggs as presents. It seems we are always looking for incentives to make children behave; thus, chocolate eggs and other gifts enter the Easter equation too!

President Rutherford B. Hayes, who served in the White House from 1877 to 1881, once said, “To avoid even the appearance of evil, I think sometimes I have unnecessarily deprived myself and others of innocent enjoyment.”

President Hayes deprived no one of innocent enjoyment when he approved egg rolling and egg hunting for the first time on the White House lawn, a tradition that remains today, at least unless it is cancelled due to sequestration …

I encourage you not to deprive yourself this Sunday. Celebrate the miracle of the resurrection.

If you choose to do so at Steeple on the Beach, please know we will have an Easter bunny and an Easter egg hunt for the children at 9:45 a.m. between Easter Sunday worship services! Why? Because children and church are the perfect match made in heaven!

Join us Holy Saturday at 6 p.m.in historic Briggs Hall to watch Mel Gibson’s movie “Passion of the Christ.” There is no charge for admission and refreshments will be provided.

Join us for a spectacular Easter Sunday Celebration at 8:30 a.m. or 11 a.m. in our beautiful sanctuary. The message this weekend is “Conquering the Inevitable” based on the 15th chapter of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians.

Reverend Andrews is Minister at Community Presbyterian Church of Deerfield Beach (Steeple on the Beach) located five blocks south of Hillsboro on AIA. www.communitych.org or find us on Facebook.

The world has a new Pope and I suspect that you were not expecting the Rabbi to be writing about the new Pontiff in this column, let alone be connecting him to the Festival of Pesach. But, as I am a Jewish Chaplain working with Broward County Catholic Health Services and Catholic Hospice and their L’Chaim Program for Jewish Patients, I couldn’t help but make a connection.

We are taught that the name we are given is of great import, as it may well prove to be a harbinger to the type of person we will grow up to be. The New Pontiff has chosen the name Franciso, or Francis. I, for one, think he chose his name well. The name Francis comes from Middle English and refers to a “Free man.” Being free is what the entire Festival of Passover is about. It is why we retell the story of our journey from slavery to freedom at each and every Seder Meal. And, if you look up the Hebrew name for Francis, you will find that one very real possibility (in fact, the one that I would give to him) is, none other than, Pesach …

Of course, even though I am a Rabbi, I am familiar with the most famous Francis … St. Francis of Assisi. At a very young age, he, too, knew the pain of being a slave as he was locked away in a jail for a full year. And yet, it was during his incarceration that he was able to begin his spiritual journey and turn his life around to become a champion of the poor and a striver for peace for one and all.

There is no question that we live in an age where there are still far too many poor… not just in economic terms, but in spiritual terms as well. And, surely all you have to do is look at any newspaper and you know that the world is in great need of peace.

The Pope has been called to lead our Catholic Brothers and Sisters just like Moses was called to lead us. As a Rabbi, it is no secret that I cannot help but see the world through Jewish eyes. It is, after all, who and what I am. And I know that many reading this column follow the same path and you might be wondering how will this Pope be in regard to the Jewish People?

Last November, he led a special memorial in remembrance of the victims of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, with Rabbi Avruj by his side and he held the memorial in the Buenos Aries Metropolitan Cathedral no less. He spoke out strongly against the bombings at the Jewish Center of Buenos Aires. He has close ties to the Latin American Jewish Congress and worked with them in their New Generations Program. He is no stranger to attending synagogue services as he has been to Shul on more than one occasion. And, if you look for a book written by Rabbi Sergio Bergman, be sure to look at the Forward because then Archbishop, now Pope, wrote the forward for Rabbi Bergman and called the Rabbi “one of my teachers.”

As we Jews begin to celebrate Pesach, our Festival of Freedom, let us extend a hearty Mazal Tov to Pope Francis and join him in helping to bring more love, peace and freedom to one and all.

Shalom my friends,

Rabbi Craig H. Ezring

Rabbi Ezring is a member of the National Association of Jewish Chaplains and of the Association of Professional Chaplains, He works professionally in this capacity with a number of healthcare facilities in the area, and with hospice. He is the Spiritual Leader of Temple Beth Israel of Deerfield Beach.

I recently had the privilege of going to Honduras for a mission trip. My sister is a missionary and works at a school as a fifth grade teacher. The school is Rancho Ebenezer and is run through World Gospel Outreach. It has always been a dream of hers to do missionary work and she was at a point in her life where her dream came true. I went there with her son (my nephew) and my 14-year-old son. I wanted my son to go and see how spoiled he really is. (Well, that was my dream).

I went thinking I was going to help them work on their facility and be a blessing to them. God has a funny way of always turning things around in my life. We did have a chance to help and do some repairs at their facility. We did some electrical work and replaced some old light fixtures with new ones in the houses where the staff and the children live. We also were able to do some plumbing repairs and replace old leaky faucets, fix toilets and repair leaking drains. We even had time to repair five or six bikes for the children who live on the ranch.

MATTHEW 28:19-20

19 “Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

20 “Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

NLT

When we got there, and began to walk around and meet everyone and see what they do there at their facility, I got thoroughly blessed by what I observed. I saw people who serve others selflessly because of the faith that they have in their God. When our faith is in God, and not in other people or in things we own, great things will happen in our lives. God will never let us down, even though other people will. I saw people working together because they believed in what they were doing and they also knew why they were doing it. I saw people working together to accomplish a mission with no personal agenda in mind. The school and the facility there in Honduras is run on donations, so they really need to trust God for all their needs.

I was encouraged by the faith I saw and it reminded me that we all can have great faith. I want to encourage you not to just have faith, but I want to encourage you to have faith in God. We need to trust God and know that the Bible is truth. Every promise we find in His Word is true and every promise is ours for the asking. We are so spoiled here in America. We need to stay strong and trust that God will do great things in our lives, but they will be on His terms, not ours.

Pastor Tony Guadagnino is a pastor at Christian Love Fellowship Church.

It is not always easy to find time for things, unless, of course, it is something that is really important to you. This Sunday, time will be on our minds as we will be moving our clocks forward one hour. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I wonder if such a move doesn’t take an hour off my life.

I know that might sound rather depressing for those of you who read my column regularly, because, you know, I try to write about the positives and the blessings in our lives. But the thought of having one less hour can serve as a positive motivating force. Think about it, what are you able to accomplish in just one hour? What loving and holy acts can you perform in such a short span of time?

The great Sage Hillel reminded us of the importance of time by saying, “If not now, when?” And he was so right because if we don’t do what we are able to now, we might never get the chance again because we never really know how many days we have left on this earth.

I have seen people who were told that they only had days left to live. I have heard families told that, once their loved one’s ventilator is removed, they will only have minutes left. And many of those very same people are still with us. They have been allotted more time and they are taking that extra time they have been given as a blessing.

We are not G-d. We might be able to come up with a probable amount of time someone has left, but G-d may well have other plans. In fact, there is an old adage that says, “The greatest of doctors is time.”

The Chofetz Chaim taught, “People say ‘time is money’ but I say ‘money is time,’ for every luxury costs so many precious hours of your life.”

What have you done with your time lately? A woman walking down the street in a city in the midwest a few weeks back saw a beggar in the street. Looking at the poor homeless soul, she might have thought, “He doesn’t look like he has much time. Let me see if I can make his day.” So she put some money into his hat.

She headed down the street and, after she and her husband had gone a few blocks, they heard the beggar shouting at them to stop. How frightening it must have been to have a homeless man chasing them down.

But they stopped, and that poor soul with not even a watch to wear, caught up to her and told her that when she put money in his hat, her ring had slipped off her finger and fallen into the hat as well. That’s right, when called upon to do a holy deed, the beggar forgot about his own needs and took the time and energy to rush to make someone else’s day.

And talk about “Paying It Forward.” The woman and her husband gave the man whatever cash they had on them as a “thank you.” And, it didn’t end there. She put the story on the Internet and, in no time, a fund was set up to get this Holy Child of G-d, this homeless man, a place of his own.

So next time you get a chance to make a difference in someone’s life, take the time and that good deed might just keep growing and growing.

Shalom my friends,

Rabbi Craig H. Ezring

Rabbi Ezring is a member of the National Association of Jewish Chaplains and of the Association of Professional Chaplains, He works professionally in this capacity with a number of healthcare facilities in the area, and with hospice. He is the Spiritual Leader of Temple Beth Israel of Deerfield Beach.

Our son, still a very young man, takes a well-deserved early retirement from the army this week. He returned from Iraq last year with more injuries than desires to explain them. But he is among the ranks of our more fortunate veterans who physically, mentally and emotionally survive the call to duty. Like most Americans, we are grateful. Like most parents, we are proud.

I remember our son as a young boy playing on the floor with those little green rubber soldiers. He would, as a child with pretense and make-believe, make sounds and crashing noises he would hear for real as a young man. I suspect he prays to forget those noises now …

It was a great privilege to see him carry the flag for his graduating class. A few years later, it was an even greater privilege for his mother and me to join a few thousand family members in the wee hours before sunrise to welcome home a few hundred of our soldiers.

It was joyful when the troops marched in formation to meet families straining to see and have that first glimpse of their soldier. All around us, we heard families when they saw their soldier excitedly call out, “There he is! There he is!”

It was somber when the troops once assembled were held in formation. There was a respectful silence that set upon this jubilant crowd when the troops were addressed by their commanding officer.

He gave thanks for each soldier being safely reunited with families and he gave thanks for the honored few who had already returned home, soldiers deployed with these troops the preceding year, but returned earlier, after having been seriously injured or after having given the ultimate sacrifice for our nation.

Billy Graham once wrote on the topic of duty that “every generation is strategic. God will hold us responsible as to how well we fulfill our responsibilities to this age and how well or how poorly we take advantage of the opportunities we have.”

If you believe as I do that answering the call to duty for our nation is important then faint not at the idea, it is even more important that we answer the call to duty in the church Christ leads.

When Jesus says, “Come, you that are blessed” he challenges the very people who say we are his disciples to chose a path that is neither pretense nor make-believe.

It is the Christian’s uncomplicated call to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, visit the sick and imprisoned. And we will be held to account as to how well or how poorly we take advantage of our abundant opportunities to do these things.

MATTHEW 25

The Truth is we serve a Lord even greater than the greatest nation in the history of the world, who makes it possible for even fallen soldiers to reunite one day with loved ones.

JOHN 12:27

Jesus says, “For now my soul is troubled and what should I say — ‘Father, save me from this hour?’ No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour.”

Friends, these are among the reasons we are blessed to answer our call to duty!

Join us Saturday @ Six and Sunday morning at 8:30 or 11 a.m. The Sunday Message “Call to Duty” is based on Matthew 25: 31 – 40.

Reverend Andrews is Minister at Community Presbyterian Church of Deerfield Beach (Steeple on the Beach) located five blocks south of Hillsboro on AIA. See more @ www.communitych.org or on Facebook.

I was talking to a prospective bride and groom the other day. The bride happens to be a doctor. And she let me know that she has opted to keep her own name.

She told me that she does not want to have to go through “the burden” of all the red tape it would take to change the name of her medical practice, her medical degrees and all the other certifications she has.

The future groom wanted to know if I had ever heard of such a thing and I told him about a verse in the Torah where we read, “I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.”(Exodus 6.6)

What were the burdens that we faced under the Egyptians? Sure, we know we were slaves, but what specific burdens did we have? Back breaking work, no days off, meager food to eat — those are givens. But how many of you remember the miniseries Roots? In the process of taking away a slaves freedom, what was one of the first things that the masters did?

They took away their given names, their African names and forced them to accept a new one at the master’s whim. Our people who were herded into the Concentration Camps … they weren’t even entitled to a name; they were given a number.

In the Torah, we read about two midwives, but according to many, Shiphrah and Puah had those names forced upon them. Their real names were Jewish names. And, when the Egyptians were not around, they made sure to use their Jewish names.

During our lifetimes, we will each be known by many different names … in our younger years, perhaps a nickname. Our parents probably had special names for us and some of us have titles that have become like names to us.

Being able to create a new name for ourselves by the way we live our life is a great freedom that we have been blessed with. In fact, the Torah even uses several names for the Holy One and, according to Biblical Scholars, each name of G-d can denote a particular period or a particular attribute of Gd. The same can be said for the names we are known by.

Rabbi Marci Bellows reminded me of a poem printed in Mishkah T’filah that teaches us a lesson about names with these words:

“We each have a name given by G-d and given by our father and mother.

We each have a name given by our stature and smile and given by our attire….

We each have a name given by the stars and given by our friends.

We each have a name given by our sins and given by our yearnings.

We each have a name given by celebrations and given by our work …

We each have a name given by the sea and given by our death.”

Let us have the wisdom to behave in such a way that we create a good name for ourselves and for others. There is an ancient Japanese proverb. My Japanese is more than a wee bit rusty, but let me try to translate it. It says, “Tigers die and leave their skins: People die and leave their names.”

Let us have the wisdom to behave in such a way that we create a good name for ourselves as a lasting legacy to our children, to our children’s children and to the world.

Shalom my friends,

Rabbi Craig H. Ezring