Aron Hirt-Manheimer

To honor the uncounted women in the Book of Numbers and to celebrate the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in the U.S. this year, Rabbi Carole Balin, Ph.D., has crafted an “alternative Book of Numbers” for her weekly Torah commentaries for Ten Minutes of Torah.

This is the third year in row that I’ve interviewed my mother, Adela, a Holocaust survivor, for Mother’s Day. In our 2018 and 2019 interviews, she revealed memories that she’d previously kept to herself, like the last time she saw her own mother. 

The following poem, from Al Vorspan's posthumously published "Scrapbook Memoir," offers insight into aging with humor and grace – plus an important, biblical life lesson at the every end.