In this land, the Maker of Stars and Dust vowed to Abraham that his children would be as many as the dust of the earth and the stars of heaven. In their darkest days, they would be as the dust. But there is mercy in the numberless count of the dust. Mercy in not being able to make a full count of the fallen and remaining ignorant of that full measure of woe. Modern technologies permit us terrible estimates. Databanks store the names of millions; digital cemeteries of ghosts. But there is no counting the dust. And when we walk the length and breadth of the land, as the Maker told Abraham to do, it the dust that supports our feet, we walk in the dust of our ancestors.
Daniel Greenfield's Memorial Day article is all about the counting or not counting the dust (עפר). It just so happens that
The age of 70 (ע) is the age of turning [gray].
gray: אפור, from ashes (afar with an alef) which is related to the word for dust (afar with an ayin).
Luke 12:6-7 Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? 7 But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.
Can these bones live, the Lord asks Ezekiel. And generations, after each slaughter, they come again, the descendants of the dead to reclaim the hills of their ancestors. Rising like the red flowers out of the soil. Like the bones out of the earth.
On the topic of rectification in the rearranging of dust, the root of the gray hair is here, in the rearranging of the letters:
Isa 61
1. The spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord has anointed me to announce good news to the humble; he has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound:
2. To proclaim an acceptable year of the Lord,
and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn:
3. To appoint to those who mourn in Zion, to give to them a garland [פאר] instead of ashes [אפר], the oil of joy instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified:
4. And they shall build the old ruins, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations:
Age 70 (ע), the time for turning.
To everything (turn, turn, turn)
There is a season (turn, turn, turn)
And a time to every purpose, under heaven
A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep
To everything (turn, turn, turn)
There is a season (turn, turn, turn)
And a time to every purpose, under heaven
A time to build up, a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones together..
It's what Solomon said. Solomon, famous for being the king of wisdom.
Information is pouring in, I'm trying to absorb and disseminate as fast as I can... Later...