LA Departure

To the many members of my family, extended family, and close friends that I've grown close to here in Los Angeles; my apologies for this single general letter to you all instead of writing each person specific letters of thanks (which unfortunately was not feasible but no less rightly deserved):

They say that in the World to Come (Olam HaBa) every person will live alone within his own 310 worlds, but I find it hard to believe that could be rewarding if it should mean a life without relationships to you. While I'm sure there is an explanation for that difficulty of mine, in the meantime, as I write this letter before I move on to Israel, I wanted to express my heartfelt thanks and appreciation to all, adults and children alike (each at his/her own level), for caring for me and accepting me so warmly into your lives and hearts from the time that I was first introduced to you until now. Thank you truly very much. Moteshakkeram. It meant a lot to me.

And to the children in the family (which would include all the adolescents who may believe they shouldn't be called children anymore :-) ), I wanted to offer one tiny thought from my 29-year-cup-full-of-knowledge:

The world is a big place :-), full of an infinity of things to work towards. You all are unique in your own ways, with your own unique skills or “advantages”, so there's nothing I can say in that regard in a letter like this. You'll all find your particular goals to work towards (or possibly sadly “run after”). That's part of what having a Life is I gather. But I've found that those “Pursuits Of Life” while being without a doubt necessary, valuable, and beautiful can dangerously lead to the damaging of an asset more fundamental and valuable than the rest, that asset being a Good Heart/ Lev Tov.

Lev Tov is in my opinion a heart wanting to be a giver to the rest of the world and not a taker; A heart that chooses to be a victim over a victimizer; A heart so filled with the love and joy of Life around that there's little room left for anger or animosity; And, unfortunately, a heart that remains soft enough to allow it being cut through and hurt sometimes, maybe even often... All these things you all already have (as do the adults in your family) and it's my hopes for you that you keep and strengthen those good hearts of yours everyday and all days.

But since the last time I checked 5-year olds don't have half of the words in these paragraphs in their vocabulary :-), it makes it very difficult for anything I've written so far to be communicated to them. As such, I'm thankful we have a pasuk from

Shlomo HaMelech making things a lot easier for all and so what i'm really saying is just this one thing:

מכל משמר נצור לבך, כי ממנו תוצאות חיים

“Of all things to protect, protect and guard your heart, because from it come all of Life's pathways.”
[Mishlei/Proverbs 4:23]

אמן כן יהי רצון


In closing to everyone, with deep thanks to all for being a part of my life and my equally deep thanks for letting me be a part of yours. Here's to being reunited hopefully someday soon in Israel.

Love,

Danny Mokhtar