The Feast of the Rejoicing of The Law at the Synagogue in Leghorn, Italy. 1850.
Oil on canvas.
The Jewish Museum, New York,
by Soloman Alexander Hart.

The poem, “Life is a Journey” is recited every year at our Yom Kippur service on Kol Nidrei. It is a prayer to God to grant us atonement for our sins and pray for those who are in need of healing.

It is read at funerals and services in Judaism.

The author was a Rabbi in Chicago, Illinois many years ago. He wrote it with a collaboration of Rabbis in North America 30 years ago, and it was included it into the Reform Judaism Union Prayer Book.

It is recited right before the Hebrew Mourners Kaddish Prayer Yitgahdal.”

Life is a Journey
by Rabbi Alvin Fine

Birth is a beginning,
And death a destination.
And life is a journey,
From childhood to maturity,
And youth to age.

From innocence to awareness,
And ignorance to knowing,
From foolishness to descretion,
And then, perhaps, to wisdom,
From weakness to strength,
Or strength to weakness-
And, often, back again,
From health to sickness,
And back, we pray,to health again,

From offense to forgiveness,
From loneliness to love,
From joy to gratitude,
From pain to compassion,
And grief to understanding-
From fear to faith,
From defeat to defeat to defeat-
Until, looking backward or ahead,

We see that victory lies,
Not at some high place along the way,
But in having made the journey, stage by stage,
A sacred pilgrmage.
Birth is a beginning,
And death a destination,
And life is a journey,
A sacred pilgrimage-
To life everlasting.