I think we were all taken by surprise - watching day after day in mounting disbelief. Watching those people standing patiently, waiting 7,8,9,10,11 hours in line , just to sign a condolence book. And not just one book, scores of books at every embassy around the world - thousands of people in Los Angeles alone, lining up all week.

And then the funeral - 2 1/2 billion people in 100 countries watched. Then 350 calls an hour began pouring in to a remarkable tzedakah hot line - over a billion dollars raised. One anonymous gift alone over $4 million.

And once again they came as on a pilgrimage to her bier - lining up thousand after thousand to see her and bid her farewell - joining silent prayers together as the world sighed with grief.

Diana lived among the richest of the rich, in a London palace. Teresa among the poorest of the poor, in the slums of Calcutta.

How different could they be; and yet... this past June they met in, of all places, the Bronx - in front of a hospital, and they embraced. A joining of two hearts and two souls on a level that transcended social status, and instead reflected a much profounder truth about the the things that really matter in life.

What was it about Diana that captured the hearts of literally billions? Of course Shakespeare himself couldn’t have written a more complex and compelling tragedy.

2. Then there was her refreshing slant on royalty.

4. Kicked out of Windsor Palace - stripped of her royal title, cast off into the trash heap of British royal history - or so it seemed.

6. She became the single most powerful female role model on earth - the most photographed woman in the world - forty-two times on the cover of PEOPLE magazine. For every wife/woman who has been cheated on by her man; for every woman whose mother in-law treated her as not good enough for her son; for every woman who has suffered, mourned losses, fought over custody or raised kids as a single mother - Diana stood proudly as a symbol of personal triumph in the face of enormous pressure, and public humiliation.

8. But that’s not where the real message lies. There is a story told of William Booth, a great preacher of the early 20th century (and founder of the Salvation Army). He was once told by a wealthy philanthropist that he would pay for a telegram to be sent all over the world if he could keep it down to ONE WORD. So after much thought, he finally said, “OTHERS.” THAT is surely the secret. After all, what made Teresa, this tiny, frail, diminutive woman in a nun’s outfit, one of the most powerful moral forces on earth? Commitment to the poor, unfailing dedication to doing God’s work - upholding the fallen, healing the sick, freeing those captive by poverty. Championing the cause of those most vulnerable in society - speaking out for those who had no voice; standing up for those who had no legs of their own. In one word: “OTHERS.”

10. Two women worlds apart - yet linked in the most important, most significant, most profound of all places - linked in the heart and linked in the soul. Linked by their commitment to OTHERS. How can we not think of Diana and Teresa on the High Holidays? Because what we do here only matters if has an impact there. Transforming the self, truly only matters when it touches the lives of OTHERS. And that’s what both of their lives were about.

Frankel wrote that during the Holocaust the Nazis took everything away from him except one thing - “The last of human freedoms; the freedom to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, and therefore to choose one’s own destiny.” That is the essence of Frankel’s teaching - that for our lives to matter, they must be lives of meaning. And it is that very meaning to life, a life directed toward OTHERS in a meaningful way, which transcends social status - rich or poor, Diana or Teresa, you or me.

The Biblical proverb teaches: TZEDAKAH HEETZIL MEMAVET - Tzedakah rescues from death. So the rabbis of the Talmud ask how? how can Tzedakah really rescue from death? They answer because though the body may die (as all eventually must), acts of tzedakah done during our life - rescue our souls, the memory of who we really were in life from the obscurity of the grave. Through acts of tzedakah we demonstrate the things that matter most in life, and even death can never take that away.

Now it’s up to you to let it shine.