Remembering Shammai

Shabes morning
I fix a period for reading
My three “rabbis” recently deceased—

Harold Bloom, whose extended family on both sides perished in Europe
Every boy but one in George Steiner’s lycée lived after the war
Eliezer ben Shlomo Wiesel survived Auschwitz without his parents and sister—

I am this day
To say little
Do much

To be available to others
Near and far
With, somehow, a cheerful face