Caving In

Rav Yair described the story of Koby Mandell tonight. As he stated, Koby was a 13 year old with American and Israeli identities whose body was discovered underground. Many hunted for answers to their plethora of questions in order to unearth the truth about this tragedy. Koby's story could have been abandoned forever inside a cave, if not for those courageous enough to explore the darkness and create a vision even when sight was no longer present. Often times, we are blinded and deafened by loud lights and are in need of assistance from the totality and clarity of silence and darkness; Only through darkness and through taking a step back can one truly see the stars and can voices truly be heard. Tonight, as we lacked sight and surrounded ourselves with black, we all challenged ourselves to dig deep into our souls and sing our hearts out with hopes for a brighter future and for our prayers to be answered. This summer, we are attempting to uncover not only the stories of our all star children in the homes from the darkest of backgrounds, but also bring to light what is truly important to us individually, what our responsibility is to the world at large and find our voices. Like Kobe, we too have American and Israeli identities that must complement each other and symbolize a peace and bond that must never be broken. We must continue to seek our vision out of the depths and pursue the over-arching mission of fulfilling that dream each and every day.