Dear Friends,
It has been a week where our hearts and minds felt as if they were in France. The photos of the funerals of these slain people and the four coffins of the Jewish victims in Jerusalem were chilling…. to say the least. (One of the men was the son of the Chabad Rabbi in Tunis.) Sunday’s Paris march of millions was very impressive and even emotional to watch. Sometimes, possibly too often in this age of instant media and information, we become almost immune to and blasé about such horrific news scenes. People are inclined to become so set in their mediocrity that they never seem to come to terms and achieve the breakthrough that I have often quoted in a wise proverb heard in the name of the legendary Chasid, Reb Mendel Futerfas: “If you lose your money, you’ve lost nothing. Money comes and money goes. If you lose your health, you’ve lost half. You are not the person you were before. But if you lose your resolve, you’ve lost it all.”
Moses brought new hope to a depressed, dreamless nation. He gave them back the spirit they had lost and eventually, through the miracles of G-d, the promise was fulfilled and the dream became destiny.
To be out of breath is normal. To be out of spirit is something we can never afford. Let us meet as a family, and let us join together in unity to pray we never lose the spirit.