Solomon Schechter

ANOTHER Moses of our race

Was called to Heaven’s holy place,

The Paradise where be the few

Who nearer Heaven daily grew,

Until on Pisgah heights of lore

They saw the Heavens’ Promised Shore,

And God with kisses bade them be

Their living immortality.

O master, with the wizard’s spell,

A sun of lore in your dying fell.

In error’s night our pillar of light

Our Torah lost its bravest knight.

A godly Heine whose smile of grace

Made sham and folly hide their face.

A lion of learning, you

The soul of Judaism knew;

The Torah was your song and wing,

O’er all the scholars you were king.

Columbus of Ben Sira’s book

An X-ray was your every look.

A character unique you were,

The Torah’s great interpreter.

A Titan lost the world, a man,

Who was a great American.

Embodiment of wisdom, he

Loved law no less than liberty.

God took a Lincoln mould alit

With gleams of humor and of wit

With light of genius and of art,

And made a scholar with a heart.

And lo, the seer Schechter smiled,

His mind a lion, his heart a child.

O Gaon of our day, your lore,

The testament of truth it bore;

And God, not self, you did adore.

Through life and lore our God you saw;

Your life, the tablet of His law.

In Torah you have left your heart,

An ark of God from us you part.

You found the gems of Torah, we

Will make them our Treasury.

From many a realm some prize you brought,

The jeweled word, the diamond thought,

But oh! a holier land you trod,

You found the manuscript of God.