The Letter in the Scroll - Poem

In a tribute video to the Emeritus Chief Rabbi L-rd Jonathan Sacks zt''l there was included a clip from an interview he gave discussing the importance of every single letter in the Torah scroll. He spoke about how all meaning is expressed in words and all words are written in letters, yet a letter on its own, has no meaning. Or if I may humbly add, no authentic meaning.

So what can one letter do to achieve and find a meaning, a purpose? Well, Rabbi Sacks continued by saying that the singular letter must combine with other letters to make a word, other words to make a sentence, other sentences to make a paragraph and other paragraphs to make a story. That is how the letter finds meaning, finds a purpose.

Rabbi Sacks than adds a beautiful final point, by saying as I quote "In Judaism, the life worth living is the life suffused with meaning." He than expounds by saying that in life, a person must join with others to make a family, the family must join with others to make a community and that community must joins with others to make a people and than only once the people are connected to the legacy of the previous generations, meaning is found and the story of life can continue being written.

I was inspired by that idea and decided to create a poem based on it. I am sharing it here right before Shavuos, for the obvious reason that is: The Jews received the Torah on this festival and all Jews have meaning and a purpose, just as, a letter in the Torah.

I hope you find the poem enjoyable,

Yitzy Schweitzer

A Letter in the Scroll - Poem

I am but one simple letter,
In a holy Torah scroll,
But, I have no real sense of meaning,
On my own.

You see, on my own,
I am just one, simple letter,
But if I help to make a word,
I feel a little better.

Many words of many letters,
Make a sentence for you to read,
Deep within the sentence,
I am somewhere there, you may find me.

Many of one sentence make all but one paragraph,
A thread of information, a piece of one story,
On one of those lines, in one of the sentences,
I am still there, little, meaningful me.

A story has but hundreds, thousands,
Of paragraphs full of letters, galore,
If I had meaning in one paragraph,
Little old me has meaning now, a little more.

A wise person once said,
Some words I believe in,
He said, “A life worth living,
Is a life suffused with meaning.

Join, my little letter, reach out,
To friends, family, community and your people,
Because when you are all together,
Your own unique story becomes just a tad more meaningful