#MyJewishValues No. 34

(Art by Bluelela)

Gimel Zayin Yud: GZY is an acronym for gam zeh ya'avor, which means "this too shall pass / and this, too, shall pass away."

There are many stories of its origin, but this is my favorite: 

"One day Solomon decided to humble Benaiah Ben Yehoyada, his most trusted minister. He said to him, “Benaiah, there is a certain ring that I want you to bring to me.”

“If it exists anywhere on earth, your majesty,” replied Benaiah, “I will find it and bring it to you, but what makes the ring so special?”

“It has magic powers,” answered the king. “If a happy man looks at it, he becomes sad, and if a sad man looks at it, he becomes happy.” Solomon knew that no such ring existed in the world, but he wished to give his minister a little taste of humility.

Spring passed and then summer, and still Benaiah had no idea where he could find the ring. He was about to give up when he decided to take a walk in one of the poorest quarters of Jerusalem. He passed by a merchant who had begun to set out the day’s wares on a shabby carpet.

“Have you by any chance heard of a magic ring that makes the happy wearer forget his joy and the broken-hearted wearer forget his sorrows?” asked Benaiah. He watched the grandfather take a plain gold ring from his carpet and engrave something on it. When Benaiah read the words on the ring, his face broke out in a wide smile.

That night the entire city welcomed in the holiday of Sukkot with great festivity. “Well, my friend,” said Solomon, “have you found what I sent you after?” All the ministers laughed and Solomon himself smiled. To everyone’s surprise, Benaiah held up a small gold ring and declared, “Here it is, your majesty!”

As soon as Solomon read the inscription, the smile vanished from his face. The jeweler had written three Hebrew letters on the gold band: gimel, zayin, yud, which began the words “Gam zeh ya-avor” — “This too shall pass.”

At that moment Solomon realized that all his wisdom and fabulous wealth and tremendous power were but fleeting things, for one day he would be nothing but dust.” 

While the phrase may have philosophical roots in Maimonides in Regimen of Health III, wearing the ring itself has a powerful effect. It is a perpetual memento mori and memento vita. It commands us to treasure our joys and take comfort in our sorrows, for they are fleeting. All that we are is stardust and the imprint of even our greatest moments will ultimately fade from all memory.

For a people like Jews, who treasure zachor, whose ability to remember is why we have survived through thousands of years, it's a realization beyond terrifying.

All those memories define us and help us keep focused on the goal of our national mission. As the Baal Shem Tov (the founder of Hasidism) taught, “Forgetfulness leads to exile while remembrance is the secret of redemption,” words that appropriately guard your exit from the history museum at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. There is arguably no value that has sustained us as a people more than our memory, our capacity to remember.

 Yet, GZY, also frees us of the weight that our history holds upon us, that we might live not in the pains of our past or the uncertainty of our future, but fully in the present of here and now. Today we are alive, and that is enough.

Take note and take care.