Somehow, the fact that IDF officer, Capt. Israel Elitzur, married and the father of a 2-year-old daughter and a-year-old son, remains hospitalized in serious condition has dropped out of this week's headlines. His brother, David Elitzur, wrote me the following words last night:
"My brother, Israel, who was wounded earlier this week in a vehicle-ramming attack, is on life support and is being kept in an induced coma. Yisrael is a person full of love and caring, giving and unconditional good. Yesterday they tried to wake him up and saw that it was still too early. He still very much needs our prayers. We hope and trust that, with G-d's help, he will regain his strength. Tonight is Rosh Chodesh Adar, so I'm sending a short passage for Yisrael's recovery about the upcoming holiday, Purim:
Each of us is Ahasuerus, constantly debating whether to listen to the Haman within him or her: to the voices of self-criticism that want to judge and destroy us. To the voices that tell us that our inner essence is scattered and separated, like the Jews of the Persian Empire. That we are, in our essence, worthless.
OR to listen to the Mordechai and Esther within us: to see the good within us, our inner worth, to trust and to take action with the King's ring. To feel worthy of our crown, riding atop a royal horse.
May we succeed in choosing, more and more, to believe and to listen to the words of Mordechai and Esther. Listening to the good within us, to our faith in ourselves. To see how we light up the world, how special we are. And, this Adar, to send a mishloach manot of love to ourselves.
Dedicated to the recovery of our dear beloved brother, Yisrael Meir Yaakov ben Rut. May he have a full and quick recovery, and continue to add light and goodness to the world, amen. Chodesh Tov!".