Kadish for the Queen: RBG, 1933-2020

Ruth Bader Ginsberg did her very best–which is so much more than can be said of most people and was more than anyone ever could have asked, especially since she was likely far sicker for longer than she let on. What we did know was that she’d suffered through four bouts of cancer. That she’d done more for woman’s rights–for human rights–than anyone in American judicial history.

And that she worked until her death to preserve what was left of American democracy.

It hurts so much to think she probably died thinking she was failing us. These are the darkest times any of us can remember and I am only shored by the idea that she took leave now, on the good wind of a new year and a new moon, so her massive energetic force could be even more powerful from the other side. You may find such a notion magical thinking but practical magic is what we have left now.

According to Jewish tradition, a person who dies on Rosh Hashanah, which began yesterday, is a tzadik, a person of great righteousness. Let the bleat of the shofar, the ram’s horn that announces the Jewish New Year, rouse us to speak for those with no voice. May Justice Ginsberg’s light and fortitude continue to guide us through these treacherous times, and may we honor her legacy today and every day of this new year.

"All, everything I understand, I understand only because I love."
― Leo Tolstoy