DAY 1890 - HAPPY BIRTHDAY GILAD SHALIT....

SO ON YOM RISHON (SUNDAY) GILAD SHALIT CELEBRATED HIS TWENTY-FIFTH BIRTHDAY IN CAPTIVITY.

I was unaware of this on Motzeh Shabbath, when for several hours I experienced a deep and inexplicable sadness.

Sunday morning I awoke from an awesome dream in which my mother Gilda bas Sarah (may my mother and grandmother both rest peacefully in Shemayim) gave me solace and showed me a vision of the future -- may it be so (with the help and blessings of HaShem) -- and I will only say that both my mother Gilda and Gilad Shalit are both in my heart and in my mind as this Rosh Chodesh Elul is now upon us, may my mother in Shemayim somehow bless Gilad Shalit, that he shall soon be free.

Happy Birthday and CHodesh Tov, Gilad Shalit.

SUNDAY, MAY 22 BY THE JEWISH CALENDAR WAS LAG B'OMER 5771 AND MARKED DAY 1793 IN THE CAPTIVITY OF GILAD SHALIT.

This traditional Jewish Holiday marking relief from suffering -- which did not mark a day of relief from suffering for Gilad Shalit -- did mark a day of relief for myself; indeed on this day of Lag B'Omer I was discharged from hospital care, having healed adequately to return home after two major surgeries, the first, double-bypass heart surgery, and the second, clot-busting surgery due to a "saddle" embolism.

I marvel at my own good fortune, while I despair and pray for Gilad Shalit. On my birthday two days before Pesach I was admitted to hospital; on the first day of Chol Moed Pesach I underwent a double-bypass operation; less than two weeks later I underwent clot-busting surgery; a week before Lag B'Omer I gained strength to walk prodigiously; on Lag B'Omer I returned home. I "should" have been dead twice; HaShem took me "Between the Straits" on dry land!

May Gilad Shalit be free this Shavuoth!

EREV ROSH HASHANA 5771

PROMISES AND UNCERTAINTY ON DAY 1559 OF GILAD SHALIT'S CAPTIVITY. WILL ROSH HASHANA MARK DAY 1560?

Gilad Shalit is not yet free, remains unseen and unheard, there is no trustworthy witness to his being alive nor promise of his freedom....

Prime Minister Netanyahu now speaks of "The West Bank" and not of JUDEA-SAMARIA, and he shakes hands with Mahmud Abbas....

Hamas fires rocket after rocket into Israel and dances joyously en masse in the streets of Gaza (literally, not figuratively!) as five Jewish souls (two men and two women, one pregnant) fall victim to a rain of terrorist bullets in "The West Bank"....

Under Israeli protection the PAL prospers and the ghost of Yassir Arafat sits across the table from Prime Minister Netanyahu and is spoken to as a legitimate "partner in peace"....

This "spirit of reconciliation" occurs against the backdrop of the sounding of the morning Shofar throughout the month of ELUL, the month in which we seek to draw closer to HaShem, a month in which we recite Selichot, the month in which we examine ourselves in regards to the year that is nearly gone, the month in which we seek to transcend self-absorption and participate in acknowledging His Creation. We stand poised to ask HaShem that we be inscribed in the Book of Life for a happy, healthy, peaceful, prosperous, enlightened New Year. Will this Rosh HaShana mark captive day 1560 for Gilad Shalit?

May Gilad Shalit be free. May Jerusalem never again be divided. May Judea-Samaria be formally rejoined to Israel. May the ERUV RAV seek new homes elsewhere, and may all those, who truly remember and love Zion, find their way home.

B'SHANA HABA B'YERUSHALAYIM!