Creating an Ethical Will?

I came upon a passing reference to a legacy document in certain expressions of Judaism termed an "ethical will." The term intrigued me so I did some searching and found this in my Jewish Learning:

For centuries, Jewish parents have passed down wisdom and values to their children by crafting end-of-life documents called tzava’ot or “ethical wills.” Much as a legal will enables one to dole out assets and possessions to one’s heirs, an ethical will gives the writer an opportunity to share their wealth of wisdom: lessons they’ve learned over a lifetime, where they found meaning in their lives, and what they may want for their loved ones going forward.

Traditionally, Jewish ethical wills contained a number of items, including burial instructions, debts and obligations to be paid, requests that family members carry on specific religious traditions, and blessings over the family. But modern ethical wills are less about accounting and instruction and more about imparting wisdom or wishes or simply reviewing one’s life. They are often written in the form of a letter and addressed to one’s children, but they can take many forms. There is no halachic (Jewish law) template or script they must follow.

In the Middle Ages, ethical wills were shared privately among families. One of the most famous ethical wills from this time was written by Spanish Jewish physician and scholar Judah ibn Tibbon to his son, Samuel when he died in France in the 12th century. It ran over 50 pages long and covered a wide range of topics, from the importance of books — he wrote the familiar line “let books be your companions; let bookcases and shelves be your pleasure grounds and gardens” — to a harsh rebuke of his son whom he felt wasn’t living up to his expectations.

 Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum and Memorial in Israel holds a number of ethical wills hastily written by Jews before they were killed at the hands of the Nazis. 

I hadn't heard about ethical wills before but the notion grabbed me. We have three adult children with partners as well as four grandchildren so during the pandemic we updated our will from decades ago, doing everything online. We were relieved to have attended to this legal housekeeping but it never occurred to us that we might create a complementary will conveying wisdom and values.

I'm pleased that all of them have adopted our love as nature, so this is already part of our legacy. We have encouraged Christian faith with the components of generosity and compassion and we see this to varying degrees in each household. We brought our children up to be respectful and welcoming to what we then called gays and lesbians. All of them have LGBTQ2S friends and are open in ways we couldn't have imagined when we were young. 

What would any of us include in our version of the tzava'ot or ethical will? I want to give this a lot more thought in the days ahead, because the clock is ticking! 

On Eagle's Wings at 50

 

Author, composer and professor Fr. Michael Joncas holding a June 2024 letter from former U.S. president Joe Biden by the bookcase where he framed and displayed the original 1976 score of "On Eagle's Wings," in his apartment in St. Paul, Minnesota, May 2026. (NCR photo/Camillo Barone)

In 1976  Jan Michael Joncas, a 24-year-old who had temporarily stepped away from a vocation to the priesthood wrote a hymn for a friend whose father had just died. It was sung at the funeral mass and quickly gained popularity that spread broadly over the past half century. The hymn, On Eagle's Wings, has been sung as an anthem and hymn in many churches, Protestant and Roman Catholic, in times of sorrow and joy. 

In Voices United, a United Church hymn resource, On Eagle's Wings is number 808, in the psalm section because it is based on Psalm 91, a source of comfort for Joncas when saying the daily office. He is still alive although serious health issues have left him unable to sing the way he once did or to play the guitar. 

The original 1976 score of "On Eagle's Wings" by Fr. Michael Joncas, framed and displayed on his bookcase in his apartment in St. Paul, Minnesota, May 2026. (NCR photo/Camillo Barone)

I read about Joncas in the National Catholic Register and here are a few paragraphs from the article" 

"I pray that God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven," Joncas said with a faint smile and watery eyes. "I just keep hoping that more and more we will respond to the spirit of God and have a transformation of our world."

Looking back, he says the most surreal moment for "On Eagle's Wings" may have been Nov. 7, 2020. While he was watching television, Joncas heard Biden quote the hymn during his victory speech. Later, Joncas wrote the president elect a letter explaining the song's origins.

"I have carried your words in my heart for decades and sung them at more Masses than I can remember," Biden wrote back. "When I meet families and communities who have experienced deep loss — from natural disasters, violence, and other circumstances out of their control — I often share your words with them as a blessing, with the hope that they will be comforted by them, as I have always been."

Imagine, a considerate and compassionate president!

The Face & a "Glass Darkly"

 

 For now we see only a reflection, as in a mirror, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love remain, these three, and the greatest of these is love.

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.  And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

                                           1 Corinthians 13: 12-13 NRSV, KJV

Ten days ago I listened to a fascinating interview on CBC Radio Sunday Morning with Fay Bound Alberti on our millennia old preoccupation with the human face. The podcast teaser describes the conversation this way: 

Selfies, social media and facial recognition have made us hyper aware – and hyper critical – of our own faces. But Fay Bound-Alberti says these innovations are just the latest examples of technology re-shaping our relationship with our faces. The historian and founder of King’s College London's Centre for Technology and the Body joins Piya Chattopadhyay to chart how mirrors and portraiture gave way to modern phenomena like "Zoom dysmorphia" and "looksmaxxing".

If you have any awareness of social media you'll be aware of the myriad "influencers" who set crazy expectations for personal appearance, particularly the face. Many of them are women although lots of men are involved in the online preening. As Bound Alberti reminded us, AI and filters and cosmetic surgery are employed to create the perfect image. 

I have noticed over time that there are many untimely deaths amongst these influencers, sometimes from surgery gone wrong or drug overdoses. It also seems that some of them die by their own hands at young ages, perhaps overwhelmed by the impossible standards they have set and can no longer maintain. At the gym there has been a growing presence of teens whose workouts include a lot of checking out their physiques in the mirror-lined walls. 

As I venture deeper into the "face like 50 miles of bad road" phase of life I am certainly aware that looks are fleeting. 

I think too of the passage of scripture from 1 Corinthians called the Love Passage so often included in Christian marriage ceremonies. As the wedding party would stand before me, often having spent a fortune on makeup, we would hear about the deeper qualities of love and the truth that we only have a partial image of life's meaning now with the implication that the day will come when we are fully understood, truly seen, by God's mercy. 

Decades ago I saw ancient mirrors in the Israel Museum which would have been possessions of the wealthy. Even still, they were made of polished metal and lighting would have poor by our standards so the reflected images which were far from perfect. 

It turns out that Faye Bound Alberti lives with prosopagnosia, or face blindness. When host Piya Chattopadhyay asked her what she would leave listeners with she suggested that we need to be kind to ourselves. Good advice. 

 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable; it keeps no record of wrongs; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth.  It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

                                      I Corinthians 13: 4-7 NRSVue

                                                Mirrors in the Israel Museum 

Manitoba Water-pocalypse Now

 

Last Tuesday I flew to Winnipeg and met Ruth there for a few days. She was returning from a week with friends in British Columbia so I made my way to Manitoba so that we could spend time with her brother and sister-in-law. 

I landed at 2:00 in the afternoon with a storm warning in effect. By 4:00 we were aware of the continuous thunder and lightning that did not relent for 10 hours. Tornado alerts continued through the night. Flights coming in then sat on the runway for hours with passengers who couldn't disembark because ground crews couldn't go out in the lightning and baseball sized hail. 

The next day we discovered that 70 millimetres of rain had fallen at their home and more than 200 just north and west of the city. Downtown Winnipeg was without power for a day and the rivers were torrents. When we ventured into the countryside to explore a couple of spots the highways were ribbons in the midst of a vast lake meaning that crops were destroyed. At points the highways themselves were covered in water and farmsteads were islands.  Our in-laws said that in 40 years living there (how's that for a biblical number?) they had never experienced such an intense storm. 

We all knew that this is yet another weather event intensified by the climate emergency. Storms happen in the prairies and some are whoppers but this was intense and extreme. We realize that people in other parts of the country aren't really aware of the severity of this event. And here we were concerned about possible wildfires. 

Yet again I ponder what we as people of faith who want to honour Creation and our planetary home need to do.  Flying less is an aspect of "living with respect in Creation" and as always I wrestle with this.

In the end we had an enjoyable few days including a trip to Riding Mountain National Park where we saw a herd of bison with calves and seven bears -- no Goldilocks. 

We can say prayers for those who are recovering from the flooding, especially for those farmers who have essentially lost this growing season. 

Moonshot

Deep peace of the running wave to you.

            Deep peace of the flowing air to you.

Deep peace of the quiet earth to you

            Deep peace of the shining stars to you

Deep peace of the gentle night to you

            Moon and stars pour their healing light on you

                        Deep peace of Christ, the light of the world to you. 

 I listened to an interview with Reid Wiseman, the commander of the Artemis spacecraft mission to the moon, including taking a gander at the side of Earth's satellite not visible from our planet.. He was enthusiastic and quite interesting as he explained the years of preparation and the challenges of that dedication as a single parent. 

He mentioned that part of that prep was learning about the significance of the moon in different cultures around the world. I have mentioned that the Canadian on the team, Jeremy Hansen did a vision quest as part of his preparation and I imagine that he learned about the moon from an Indigenous perspective. I was pleasantly surprised that this was part of their education for the mission, given that it isn't of scientific benefit. We are spiritual and cultural beings and this was acknowledged. 

I've noted before that Jesus was likely in a Garden of Gethsemane bathed in moonlight the night before he was arrested and crucified the following day. He was in Jerusalem for Passover, a festival connected to the full moon of the Spring Equinox and Christian Easter is a moon-related celebration as well. 

We're still a couple of weeks away from the June full moon but here are the phases for the month.

A Tree Comes to Downtown Belleville

We shall not be moved

On the road to freedom
We shall not be moved
Just like a tree that's standing by the water side
We shall not be moved

We Shall Not Be Moved", is an African-American spiritual hymn and protest song  dating to the early 19th century American south

A couple of weeks ago we stopped to pick up a pizza at the excellent Bourbon St. Pizza which is actually just off Market Square. We rolled up to see several people installing a large and intriguing mural with a tree featuring prominently in the design. We brake for trees, or at least admire them, but it wasn't until a few days later that we learned its origins: 

The mural is part of Canada Connects: Nature’s Canvas National Mural, a large-scale collaborative artwork designed by Canadian muralist Lewis Lavoie.

The completed 12-by-24-foot mural is made up of 4,000 hand-painted tiles from communities across Canada, including 150 tiles painted by local participants from the Quinte region.

“Downtown Belleville is proud to celebrate creativity in the heart of our community, and this mural is a beautiful example of what can happen when people come together through art,” said Danielle Hanoman, executive director for the Downtown Belleville BIA.  “To be part of a project that connects our community to a larger national movement is incredibly meaningful.  This mural not only showcases local talent and participation, but also reminds us that we are all connected through creativity, collaboration, and a shared sense of place.”

This mural is a cool initiative and I hope people in Belleville will search it out.  

Of course, there are Trees of Life in many cultures, including the Judeo/Christian tradition and trees are just about everywhere in the bible from Genesis to Revelation. The Psalms begin with a tree and in one story that will always baffle me, Jesus curses a fig tree. I think something got lost in the story-telling. 

Who Benefits from the World Cup?

 

The FIFA World Cup of Football (soccer to North Americans) begins today in this country, and isn't Canada lucky to be one of the host countries for the largest sporting event on the planet?  You may or may not support that question and maybe our answers would be influenced by our appreciation of "the beautiful game." 

The World Cup will also rival the Olympics as having the largest carbon footprint of any sporting event. And it will provide the biggest betting spree of any event. Hmm. 

Still, lots of cities in Mexico, the United States, and Canada got on board with hosting the World Cup including Toronto and Vancouver. As the tournament drew closer lots of those venues began to realize that the promise of packed stadiums may not be fulfilled. One reason is that the FIFA tickets are incredibly expensive and in Canada there are a number of meh match-ups. Hoteliers and restaurateurs are frustrated that bookings aren't what they were hoping for. 

We've learned that about a billion dollars in federal funding has gone into the World Cup and given the cost to fans we have to wonder why. Methinks there are lots of people benefitting from the event and they aren't regular folk. 

At the risk of making shallow "either/or" comparisons, how far would a billion bucks go toward fulfilling Canada's commitments to Indigenous communities to bring safe drinking water? We know that the federal government has spent lots of money on lawyers to fight payouts for Indigenous education and reparations to certain groups of school survivors. Of course doing so wouldn't make us "world class" as a nation, supposedly, even though these would be steps toward Truth and Reconciliation. As a Christian and member of the United Church I want these commitments to be fulfilled. 

How do we get hornswoggled into financing activities such as these with public money and then exclude the vast majority of taxpayers from participating? 

We have four grandchildren and all of them have played soccer, the most popular sport for children in Canada. It's a great activity and one of the least expensive for kids. So far none of them has expressed excitement over the World Cup but maybe that will come. 

I would be happy for a miracle where Canada won a game.