I have taken great joy in learning Mishnah with my son Yishama in Israel for the last few months. It has been great looking at the Mishna as a long and strange piece of literature. It has been magical connecting with my son who is so far way in this unique way.

Recently we learned a piece of wisdom by Rabbi Akiva in Eduyot. There he taught:

the father transmits to the son beauty, strength, wealth, wisdom and years. ( Eduyot 2:9)

I am not the most handsome person. I am not the strongest. Clearly I am not the wealthiest. There are plenty of people much smarter than me. And who knows how long I have to live? At first, in reflecting on this list I am sorry I do not have more to offer my children.

That said, today is the 8th Yahrzeit of my father, James Joseph Orlow- Yaakov Yosef ben Avraham v Leah z”l. My dad with all of his flaws, foibles, and limitations was a good man who did pretty good. Looking at his life in retrospect, I am honored to look like him, and boy do I look like him. He was in the Navy and while I still need to work off his belly, I am blessed with a strong build. He worked hard and I learned a work ethic from him. I cannot complain about making a living. He was crazy smart, that is undeniable. Maybe some of that rubbed off on me. And while I miss him and wish he lived longer, he did live a long a full life. I can only hope to do the same.

Looking at this photo it is profound to see the lineage of his eyes. You can track my dad’s beauty to me and some of my children. In the last 8 years my hair got looking even more like my old man’s.

We all need time to to develop a more charitable look at what we have been given, what we have made of ourselves, and what we might have give our children. I am proud to be his son. I can only hope that my children are or will also be proud to have me as their Aba. For now I just pause to reflect on Rabbi Akiva’s lesson and hope that my father’s beauty, strength, wealth, wisdom, years, and memory will all be for a blessing.