“But now,” Bento continued in a soft, teacherly voice, “I have given up these childish hopes and have replaced them by the certain knowledge that I hold my father inside me—his face, his love, his wisdom—and in this manner I am already united with him. Blessed reunion must occur in this life because this life is all we have. There is no eternal blessedness in the world to come because there is no world to come. Our task, and I believe the Torah teaches us this, is to attain blessedness in this life now by living a life of love and of learning to know God. True piety consists in justice,
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