Making your life count

I hope everyone is having an amazing inspiring summer. This past shabbos on Yad b’Yad I was helping write a dvar torah with two girls and I remembered this idea that I once heard from Rav Simcha Hochbaum. In bentching we say “uviney yerushalim ir hakodesh bimihaira biyamanu..”. We talk about the beit hamikdash being rebuilt in our days. But lets say one has an amazing fulfilled life and did so many mitzvot, was his life then worth nothing if the beit hamikdash was not built? Of course not! So we should read the word Biyamanu as with our days, not in our days. Is what we are doing with our days going to lead to the building of the final beit hamikdash? Lets make every second of our life count!

This next poem always makes me think about making every second of your life count.

The Dash by Linda Ellis

There was a man who stood to speak

At the funeral of a friend

He referred to the dates on her tombstone

From the beginning to the end

He noted that first came her date of her birth

And spoke the following date with tears

But he said what mattered most of all

Was the dash between those years

For that dash stands for all the time

That she spent alive on earth.

And now only those who loved her

Know what that little line is worth.

For it matters not how much we own;

The cars the house the cash

What matters is how we live and love

And how we spend our dash.

So think about this long and hard.

Are there things you'd like to change?

For you never know how much time is left

That can still be rearranged.

If we could just slow down enough

To consider what's true and real

And always try to understand

The way other people feel.

We'd be less quick to anger

And show appreciation more

And love the people in our lives

Like we've never loved before.

If we treat each other with respect

And more often wear a smile

Remembering that this special dash

Might only last a little while.

So when your eulogy is being read

With your lifes actions to rehash

Would you be proud of the things they say

About how you spent your dash?

Cos that dash stands for all the time

That you spent alive on earth

And only those who loved you

Know what that little line is worth

It matters not how much you own

The cars the house the cash

What matters is how you live and love

And how you spend your dash

What matters is how you live and love

And how you spend your dash.