By Rabbi Chaim Stern
‘Tis a fearful thing
to love what death can touch.
A fearful thing
to love, to hope, to dream, to be –
to be,
And oh, to lose.
A thing for fools, this,
And a holy thing,
a holy thing
to love.
For your life has lived in me,
your laugh once lifted me,
your word was gift to me.
To remember this brings painful joy.
‘Tis a human thing, love,
a holy thing, to love
what death has touched.
Although many mistakenly attribute the poem to Yehuda Halevi (d.1141), it was in fact written in the 20th century by Rabbi Chaim Stern (1930-2001) of Brooklyn, New York. (See here for more info)