Blessings to the Blessed*

CHAIM SELIGMANN

The name “Selig” has many connotations and I chose the one that means “blessed” (Chaim, can you imagine that were you born in Morocco for example, and not in Europe, you might have been called Chaim Bracha).

With what have you been blessed?

With days, months and years … may there be many more of them.

With wisdom, intelligence and knowledge … may they continue to thrive.

With a sweet-bitter Jewish humor that has a cynical touch at the edges,

With a mischievous smile, that twinkles and invites,

With many loving friends and acquaintances

With pioneering, central roles in kibbutz life

With trust and love to the people, the country and the Zionist cause,

With endless curiosity and with a prolific, original thought,

With the ability to study and learn and the desire to share this knowledge,

With a praiseworthy stubbornness… not to give up until the issue is well clarified…

With high involvement and considerateness,

With a tireless vitality, topped with endless energy and enthusiasm

And many more blessed qualities that cannot be counted…

And with what have we, the Urfeld circle, been blessed through you?

With the discoverer of the Integrierte Gemeinde and their vision,

With the eldest of the tribe, considered by us as an important and valued position

(Because a tribe without its eldest is not a tribe or a “circle”)

With a loyal friend and comrade,

With the philosopher of the Urfeld circle,

With a skeptic, “our own anarchist”,

With an aloof critic, who studies everything with caution and care,

Inviting us all to take interest and investigate all that is human.

I look at you, Chaim , with a loving smile and tell myself:

How lucky we all are

That you are part of us

That your contribution to us all is so unique,

And your presence is so lively within us.

Congratulations (Mazal Tov) to you blessed friend,

Much health and long life

We love you, comrade Seligmann.

Yair

17.11.02

*  Genesis,12,2 (…and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and be thou a blessing.)