New Moon: Speaking to the Righteous

May her memory be for blessing.

The skies have been amazing since Karlene died. And my corpuscular walks have provided much consolation. Photo taken at Lake Harriet on January 29, 2024.

So begins a new lunation. So ends the last one. Consolations will necessarily continue as we can’t help but find the next best things when you are working with words.

Those of you who have been reading along know that my sister Karlene died and I have another story to share that will lead us into the next lunation. Please forgive me for its rough edges, it was written and delivered to you in short succession.

She and I had an exchange over text last August. She asked about wishing a friend whose husband had died that his memory be for blessing. Her friend was Jewish and she wanted to know if that was the right thing to do. It inspired me to look into the saying more, even though I have heard it often and used it myself. I had began to hear it more after the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. It comes from Proverb 10:7 which says that “the memory of the righteous will be evoked in blessing.”

Karlene and I had a small discussion about that word righteous. Which feels large and unruly in this day and age of self-righteousness, but I think it is better related to the idea of a mensch, which is the Yiddish word that refers to a person of integrity and goodness. We left it at that, that saying May his memory be for blessing indicates that the person who died is a mensch and that to be righteous in Judaism is like being a mensch, having integrity, caring about doing the right thing, and somehow mensch is a friendlier word, it sounds more like someone you would pal around with.

Karlene herself was a mensch. I think the conversation above was an indicator of how she wanted to do what was meaningful and helpful. Her righteousness was open hearted and grounded feet. She had a curiosity and a wish to connect with others. She wanted to learn more, to support, appreciate, and lift up.

So I have come to find, since that conversation, that there is even more to that wish, may her memory be for blessing. That it has a kind of karmic action that prophesies the reverberations of her righteousness continuing.

It is like the sharing of the merit that I do with each Yoga Poetry Radio.

It is the sincere wish that her goodness doesn’t end with her death, or end here with those of us who knew her well and have lost the most, it goes on shining outward and is a blessing for everyone.

That is the truth of the righteous. Of whom we have lost so many. They live on through their words and actions and their memory is for blessing.

My intention for the lunation will be to continue this writing on righteousness.