A story is told about
the 19th century Chassidic Master, the Rebbe Rashab, who was visited by a
friend he had not seen for 37 years.
The re-union was
strange—the two once-close friends had seemingly nothing to say to each other
after all that time—and then the Rebbe began to sing. It was a song from
another time, and he closed his eyes as he sang, transported to another place.
In a trance-like state, he sang for a long while, and when he finished, he
turned to his friend and asked, "Do you remember?" And the friend
answered, "Yes, I remember." That's all they said to each other, and
a week later the friend died.
Later
the Rebbe explained to his students who had witnessed that moment:
"Thirty-seven years ago, when we parted ways, this was the song that we
sang. The song was, in a way, a time capsule that held for us all the
years that passed. When my friend said that he remembered, I knew that we
didn't need to reunite because we had never parted ways—that song lifted us to
an eternal time and place as if these years had never passed." -Simon Jacobson
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