O my heart, be strong and of good courage while the freshness of youth yet lasts: the tree of knowledge is yet in its greenness, its leaves are not scattered, and the twin-leaf is not divided; before old age strips me of the coat of youth, and sets me naked and bare: before ‘the one that departeth and cometh not back’[221] will be taken away from me; while the cord that fell unto me in pleasantness is not yet loosed, and before the golden bowl is broken; before the pure pieces of gold are changed, and before the wheel which turns about in the world by the command of the Almighty on high is broken. Then shall follow days of terror, during which the half-dead and feeble will not die for a month or for some years. But it shall happen one day that we shall awake and see that we were like unto them that dream. O my heart, if not now, when shall I seek rest for me? Shall I do it in the days of hoary hair, when the strength fails? The branch of all mortals shall wither; even the tender and delicate shall be dried up and wither when they grow old; their skin shall shrivel. Will God create a new thing in me, that I may have youth after I have grown old? Behold, I was formed out of clay; nature fashioned me small in my dimensions; I have the face of a man, not the face of an eagle that renews its youth at the time of old age. Moreover, I am of contrite spirit; to my disadvantage, I was different from the young men my companions. In my youth, without old age and without mature years, I almost grew old and became grey. My strength was enfeebled as that of a woman. My senses grew weak, my thoughts became deranged, and yet I was not advanced in years. My face was wrinkled before my time, and my skin was dried up, so that it became like furrows. My head which, while in its freshness, was as the most fine gold, and upon which brown hair was grown, has white branches now, because hoariness, snowing in its midst, is scattered over it. In the prime of my life, while still in its full strength, my hair was plucked and torn out, and was moved out of its place. Shall my stature, which was like a palm-tree, and my back, which was straighter than a hedge, now be bowed down as a rush, so that none can raise it? My locks, which were curly and intertwined, fall out and are scattered. The tresses of my head, which were desirable as gold, and the hair thereof which was like purple, has become scanty, and through its departure has left breaches. What shall I do when God arises to seek my iniquity; for behold, my sins shall surely be found. XXXVI. LEVI B. GERSHON