Great News amongst an Ugly Reality

We finally named our new born son.....Itai Yisrael.

The meaning:
"Itai"
1. One of King David's warriors
2. Hebrew word for friendly/compasion

"Yisrael" - named after my great-uncle Irving who was a gem of a human being - caring, sweet, gentle, friendly and loved by all.

May our Itai Yisrael grow up and develop the wonderful attributes that made my great-uncle Irving the wonderful person that he was.

At the brit I mentioned that Itai's bar Mitzvah parsha is parshat shelach and one major lesson I hoped he would internalize from that parsha is the lesson not to say dibah (the sin of the spies is that they spoke "dibah", or complained, about the land of Israel).

Just focusing on the bad and complaining is not good for one's personal development and not good for one's spiritual development. Rather, the world before us is imperfect, our own people (Am Yisrael) is imperfect and the land of Israel is imperfect, IN ORDER FOR US TO WORK TOWARDS MAKING THINGS BETTER. To focus on the bad, to complain about people, Am Yisrael, or Eretz Yisrael, regardless if it is true or not, means taking oneself out of being actively involved in improving the situation.

Am Yisrael has its problems, but instead of complaining about it, do something about it.

Eretz Yisrael has its problems, but instead of complaining about it, come here and do something about it.

So my bracha to our little Itai is that he hold on to his emunah in Hashem and dedicate himself to deal with the problems and challenges facing Am Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael instead of running away from the issues and only complaining about them.

That is the good news.

The ugly reality is that the Israeli Prime Minister together with the Bush administration have recently taken concrete steps that will endanger the whole state of Israel in the coming weeks or months ahead. The question isn't IF the palestinians will use terrorism again but WHEN they will begin to use terrorism again? (even the first question is a stupid thought considering that terrorism is still going on, and wasn't totally stopped - a continuation of the successful palestinain game they play with international politics)

However, even with this ugly reality, we, in Israel, will continue to have children, continue to build and move into communities all over Israel, including YESHA, and continue to act upon our beliefs that will ultimately bring about true peace to Am Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael - regardless of the dangerous games that the politicians play with our lives.

We will not stop and complain, rather we will continue to do what we are supposed to do; and that is the type of life we bless our children to take upon themselves as well.

L'taken Olam B'malchut Shakai,
Avi