In just three weeks
A world is gone
What can we think?
Reflect upon?
Three great lives
Who bridged the span
Of worlds that cry
Greatness of man
We lost the worlds of Torah
Rav Shimon, Rav Shlomo
We lost a world
That once was Telshe
A century ago
The sweetness and the holiness
The drive, the zest, the yearn
Spanning continents we lost
From Cleveland to Lucerne
And woe to Eretz Yisroel
A leading light is gone
The wisdom that a nation gleaned
And laid their eyes upon
And though not young
In fact quite old
A century or more
No boundaries would
These great men set
To those who would implore
They streamed to them
From the whole world
Each with a special plead
And leave in comfort
Knowing that
These men would intercede
No sickness, pain would stop them
Their spirits young at heart
They made each talmid feel so close
Though centuries apart
The ziknei am
Are leaving us
And we stand silent, numb
Where are the lights
To lead us now?
Where will they now come from?
Who will remember Grodno?
Who will remember Telshe?
Who will link to Volozhin?
As tears in our eyes wells
And those of us
Who once did stand
In shadows of their shine
Must now become
A sacred link
Continuing the line
We all can shrug our shoulders
Oh what great men these were
But I am I
And you are you
And say we all defer
I sadly beg to differ
For all the world has lost
And we must now
Regroup, rebuild
Whatever is the cost
So read all the hespeidim
And glean what you can do
Do fill a speck of the great void
The least that we can do
