Translation by Yehoshua Siskin
It has been 14 years since the death of legendary Lietutenant Colonel Emmanuel Moreno at the close of the Second Lebanon War. Moreno, a lead officer in Sayeret Matkal, Israel's most elite special forces unit, participated in undercover missions so delicate that publication of his picture is forbidden until today. But we are allowed to publish his important thoughts. Here are several of them that his widow Maya Ohana-Moreno previously sent me with her own explanatory comments:
"Whatever does not take you forward will automatically take you backward".
These words guided Emmanuel in everything he did whether in the military, in Torah study, in his profession and, above all, in constant improvement and refinement of his character traits.
"God is constantly creating tools for positivity". Everything that happens to us in life happens in order to make us better, to increase our positive influence, and to make us do more good.
"A tzadik will fall seven times but rise each time (Proverbs 24:16) – The challenge for our generation is not 'not to fall' but to know that when you fall you rise." The word "despair" was not in Emmanul's vocabulary. Every fall is a springboard for an ascent.
"Don't make yourself into a big deal". Don't put yourself in the center of things, don't think that the story is all about you. There are bigger things than you. Do not allow your personal difficulties to make you despair because the missions before you take precedence over your personal life.
