Through strife and through strength,
Always AZA.

Brotherhood begins as a spark passed from one set of hands to another.
One Aleph carries it for a while, then another does the same, and over time the flame grows large enough to light an entire room filled with people who once believed they had to face the world alone.

That is why an order feels alive.
Every brother adds something to the fire.
An Aleph brings laughter into the darkest nights.
Another keeps everybody together when things begin to fall apart.
Some Alephs remind the others that being strong has nothing to do with pretending you never get hurt.
The flame survives because each person leaves part of himself inside it.

Then an Aleph dies, and for the first time everyone notices how much warmth one person had been carrying.
Every brother standing there understands that grief is the price of building something real with other people.

The fire keeps burning because nobody lets a fallen brother’s flame disappear with him.

Years from now, new Alephs will stand where we stand now without knowing whose hands fueled the fire they inherited.
They will still feel its warmth in every “Up You Men,” every separates, every game held too late into the night, because the people we lose remain inside the things they helped create.

And as long as the flame keeps moving from brother to brother, he is still here.

Through life and through death,
Always AZA.

-

This poem is dedicated to Andrew Sober, an Aleph from Baltimore Council, and for every Aleph whose memory continues to live on through our Brotherhood.