..........5771...........

As I approach the dawn of a new year....Rosh Hashanah 5771....a new year I was not certain I would have had the privilege to greet....I am first and foremost grateful to my beloved wife Lisa for insisting that I visit a doctor on my 50th birthday....without which my condition would not have been discovered....to my precious children Adam and Danielle who I love beyond words and who will each greet this Rosh Hashanah in Eretz Yisrael....to my wonderful parents and in laws....to my dear family and extended family....to my dearest friends.... to my many dear Rabbaim, to the amazing community of Lower Merion, Philadelphia and to the Yidden of Klal Yisrael for your heartfelt teffilas, your overwhelming kindness and genuine concern for my well being and that of my wife and children during these past five months.


I will never be able to properly articulate in words the deep gratitude I hold in my heart for all of you.

You quite simply stormed the heavens and beseeched The Almighty to bring me back from the precipice which separates this world from the next.

I am forever humbled and overwhelmed by the kindness you have shown me.

I also ask that you please forgive me for the inadequacy of this expression of thanks to you....as it was your teffilos that opened the gates of heaven for me and quite simply saved my life. I am so humbled by this truth that my expression of gratitude can only fall short of the magnanimity of your deeds.

I am of course most grateful to The Ribbono Sh'Olam for hearing your teffillos... and for listening to my many pleas for His rachamim and for drying the tears which flowed from my heart and down my face for so long.

Hashem....You protected me....You provided me shelter from the fury of this storm....and You brought me back from the brink.

In grappling with all that I have witnessed, I was moved by an idea offered by Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathon Sacks when posed by the question of what one should do, if G-d forbid you find yourself in the midst of crisis?

"There's one biblical passage that's deeply helpful. It's the famous enigmatic story in Genesis 32 in which, at night, Jacob wrestles with an unknown, unnamed adversary: "Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak". It was this passage that gave the Jewish people their name, Israel, meaning, "One who struggles with G-d and with man and prevails". The key phrase is when Jacob says to the stranger, "I will not let you go until you bless me". Within every crisis lies the possibility of blessing. Events that at the time were the most painful, are also those that in retrospect we see most made us grow.

Crisis forces us to make difficult but necessary decisions. It makes us ask, "who am I and what really matters to me?" It plunges us from the surface to the depths, where we discover strengths we didn't know we had, and a clarity of purpose we had hitherto lacked. So you have to say to every crisis, "I will not let you go until you bless me".

The struggle isn't easy. Though Jacob was undefeated, he "limped". Battles leave scars. Yet G-d is with us even when He seems to be against us. For if we refuse to let go of Him, He refuses to let go of us, giving us the strength to survive and emerge stronger, wiser, blessed."

I pray that in 5771 we all see the blessings....even in the darkest and most difficult of moments....

....and in seeing the blessings....we see Hashem....and in doing so....

Hasten the coming of the Moshiach.

B'simcha
michael