Last week, I was sitting with a friend in his office, speaking about life. The man, who runs a successful business and has raised a beautiful family, acknowledged his good fortune and then added: “but in five generations no one will remember me anyway”.
I digested the comment in silence. It struck me that I have never considered whether people – family included – would remember me in five generations, and that I certainly have never set that as a goal or expectation. Indeed, I thought, many people come to say Yizkor – the memorial prayer – on Holidays, and I’ve never heard anyone memorializing an ancestor of five generations back.
So I responded: “Our objective is to make meaningful choices that impact the world today. When I behave thoughtfully and properly, taking the steps G-d would have me take, I’m creating eternal goodness that will always be a part of my relationship with the Divine. Whether other people recognize or remember what I’ve done is ancillary. Human acknowledgment is finite and futile; but G-d, and the goodness we create, are eternal”.
That conversation rang in my head for several days. I believe that most of us have a primal need to live beyond our deaths. My friend and I were no different; we each wanted a whisper of eternity.
But what does that mean?
In concrete terms, it may mean being remembered in five generations. But that objective is almost certainly destined for failure, and I think we can satisfy the desire for posterity with something more substantive than human acknowledgment.
So let’s define our expectations and hopes: We can each do something special TODAY to bring light to the world. We can do a Mitzvah, we can touch someone’s life, we can make a difference. The energy we create doesn’t depend on people’s memory and it won’t dissipate when they forget.
It’s eternal beauty, a bond your soul has forged with G-d and the cosmos. And it will last for as long as your soul and G-d last.
Forever.