Baltimore, MDd - Sept. 17, 2015 - G'mar Chasima Tova.

In these days of introspection, we have to examine ourselves and do what we can to be a force for positivity. The easiest thing is to tell other people what they need to do to correct their faults, the hardest is to change ourselves. So, anything I am writing is directed to myself, but you can listen in.

Here are some New Year's Resolutions:

I will not take Medinat Yisrael for granted.   We are the fortunate generation that has grown up with the Jewish State being a fact, not a dream. Yet, there is much to do to keep that homeland and heartland of our People safe and viable. Israel is known as "Startup Nation". In 1948, Israel had no viable economy and was an economic basket case. Not today. Chaim Weizmann said that Israel's natural resource is the Jewish Mind. So true. What has happened over these decades is miraculous.

I will value the Jewish Neshama in every member of our People.

Rav Kook said that just as on a Yahrtzeit we say, "the Neshama should have an aliyah", we can also pray that "the aliyah will have a neshama". He was farsighted and saw past those generations of Freethinkers who threw away every vestige of religion on those islands of pure Communism that are called Kibbutzim. Based on what I read, there are now Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur tefillos on even the most secular kibbutzim, and there are many who no longer have the antipathy of their grandparents and are open to religious expression, if we approach them properly.

I will constantly remind myself that we all love Israel, even if some verbalize it differently. When they asked us to pray for "Acheinu b'Eretz Hakodesh", they did not mean that Israel, the State, is illegitimate and we should daven only for are the Yiddin who live there. They don't really prefer the British Mandate or maybe a Bi-National State, where an Arab majority will rule over the Yishuv Hayashan.  No, they can't mean that. These same people have been doing so much to lobby and daven against the Iran fiasco. It is just that the arguments of a previous generation seem to make it impossible for them to say a prayer for the State of Israel, or even for the Tzva Hagana L'Yisrael, as the fighting force of the Jewish Nation. As Rabbi Berel Wein has explained in numerous essays, I know that, in their hearts, they all love Israel and want it to survive.

I will remember that VeAhavta L'reyacho Kamocho might be understood as "Love your neighbor-because he is Komocho, just like you." As our beautiful Baltimore community continues to grow and flourish and grow in diversity, I will see past the illusory differences and remember that we are all brothers and sisters in the same family. I will do all I can to keep our special achdus strong. 

Ours is a blessed generation. We have been given an opportunity that our ancestors dreamed of. May we be worthy of the challenge and may we live to see our innate Ahavas Yisrael expressed in times of joy as it always is in times of travail.