Searching for Legacy
What will remain of us when we are gone? Who will remember our stories, carry our values forward, and keep our traditions alive? Will the next generation know what mattered to us, and will it matter to them?
These are not new questions. In Parashat Lech Lecha, we meet Avram, a man promised a great future but uncertain how that future will unfold.
God tells Avram to leave his land, his birthplace, and his father's house and travel to a land that God will show him. He is promised that he will become a great nation and that all the families of the earth will be blessed through him. Yet there is one very personal problem: Avram has no child to carry his legacy forward.
Avram brings his concern directly to God: What can You give me, when I am childless? He even considers the possibility that his servant will inherit from him. God reassures him that his heir will come from his own body, but Avram must still live with uncertainty about how the promise will be fulfilled.
I find this one of the most relatable parts of Avraham's journey. He isn't in the Garden of Eden, talking to snakes. He isn't building an ark and preparing to begin the world again after a flood. He is a man wondering what his life will amount to, who will continue what he has begun, and whether the future he hopes for will become reality.
How familiar that struggle can feel to grandparents.
We spend years raising children, building homes, creating traditions, and developing the values that guide our lives. We hope our children will find loving partners and build families of their own. And even when those things happen, new questions emerge.
Will our grandchildren know us? Will they feel connected to us? Will they be Jewish, and what will Judaism mean in their lives? Will they understand why we light Shabbat candles, tell family stories, and hold on to the traditions that have shaped us?
Sometimes these questions bring anticipation and joy. Sometimes they bring worry or grief over the distance between the future we imagined and the one unfolding before us. We want reassurance that what matters to us will matter to those who come after us.
But Avraham's story reminds us that even a promise from God does not mean we get to see the whole picture at once. He must continue living, making choices, building relationships, and walking toward a future he cannot fully understand.
Perhaps our own search for legacy asks something similar of us.
We cannot decide who our children will become, what our grandchildren will believe, or which parts of our family story they will carry forward. But we are not powerless. We can notice and celebrate the pieces of ourselves already alive in the next generation. We can share our stories and values in ways that invite curiosity rather than demand agreement. We can build relationships in which our grandchildren experience the warmth, meaning, and joy of belonging to our family.
Avraham's journey is not simply about reaching a destination. It is about continuing to walk toward a future he cannot yet see.
Perhaps that is our task, too. To take our legacy seriously without becoming so worried about its future that we miss the opportunities to live it in the present. To share what we treasure, nurture the relationships that make transmission possible, and find joy in the people our children and grandchildren are becoming, even when their paths differ from the ones we imagined.
JOYFUL
Notice the legacy that is already alive. What do you recognize in your children or grandchildren that connects to your own story? It might be a familiar expression, a family tradition, a sense of humor, a value, or a way of treating others. Look for these traces with curiosity and delight, even when they appear in unexpected forms.
INTENTIONAL
Choose what you want to carry forward. If you could pass on one story, Jewish practice, family value, or way of seeing the world, what would it be? Don't leave its transmission entirely to chance. Find a natural opportunity to share it with your grandchildren, whether through a story, a conversation, a ritual, or something you do together.
CONNECTION
Focus on the relationships through which your legacy can travel. Is there one relationship with a child or grandchild you would like to nurture? Rather than worrying about what that person will believe, choose, or become, consider what you can do now to strengthen your connection. What could you ask, share, listen to, or enjoy together?
We may never know exactly how our story will be carried forward. But we can keep writing it, sharing it, and living it with the people beside us on the journey. connected.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbanit Sharona Hassan
Founder of Grand Plan
Did you listen to the Connecting Jewish Grandparents: The Grand Plan Podcast this week? It was completely different from this Weekly.
Please listen, rate, review and share.
Spotify: bit.ly/JewishPodcast
Apple: bit.ly/JewishGrandApple
You can sponsor a weekly connection email or Connecting Jewish Grandparents podcast episode.
Use this learning in honor or memory of someone you love.
A parent.
A grandparent.
A child.
Whether celebrating a joyous life-cycle event or honoring the memory of those no longer with us, it is a meaningful way to connect the generations and mark a legacy.
If that speaks to you, I would be honored to include your dedication. https://grandplan.pro/profile/sponsorship
