This time last week I attended a Bar Mitzvah ceremony in Chicago. I was struck by two passages read in the course of the ceremony. One attributed to Albert Einstein and another from poetry by Marge Piercy. These words found great resonance within me.

...we are here for the sake of each other...Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labors of others, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received and am still receiving.

Albert Einstein (adapted)

We stand in the midst of the burning world; primed to burn with compassionate love and justice, to turn inward and find holy fire at the core, to turn outward and see the world that is all of one flesh with us, see under the trash, through the smog, the furry bee in the apple blossom, the trout leaping, the candles our ancestors lit for us.

From "Interpretive Nishmat Kol Hay" by Marge Piercy.