We attended a funeral today for a longtime family friend, Ed Mack. Ed was like a brother to my dad, who is an only child, and my folks were unable to travel in for the funeral.
Ed was a truly nice guy, a family man who would do anything for the people close to him.
The rabbi who spoke — I didn’t get his name — offered some comments that I think bear repeating, at least in paraphrase, based on the 15th Psalm:
- 15:1 A Psalm of David. the Lord, who shall sojourn in Thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell upon Thy holy mountain?
- 15:2 He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh truth in his heart;
- 15:3 That hath no slander upon his tongue, nor doeth evil to his fellow, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour;
- 15:4 In whose eyes a vile person is despised, but he honoureth them that fear the Lord; he that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not;
- 15:5 He that putteth not out his money on interest, nor taketh a bribe against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved.
The psalm is especially apt at a time of mourning, offering a catalogue of attributes that the virtuous embody, the rabbi said. And it reminds us, the mourners that, at a time of grieving, we can do more than shed tears.
Tears have their place, he said, but we can more effectively remember the dead by acting as the deceased would have us act, by being the best that we can be, by living the ethical life. In that way, the rabbi said, we allow the deceased to live on in us.
In Ed’s case, his love of family and friends stand out as his example and we can best remember him by emulating this love with our own families and friends and extending it outward to our fellow man.
I won’t turn this into a political screed — readers of this blog know where I stand on issues like poverty or the war — but there are too many people around the globe living in desperate circumstances, too many living in poverty, dealing with the ravages of war. We have a responsibility to at least speak up for them.
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Hank Kalet 