The Measure Of A Man

Shalom!

The Sabbath is concluded and the new 'day' has begun...today is
Av 23, 5772...we are drawing closer to Rosh HaShanah as each page of the calendar is turned...

One often wonders 'what is the measure of a man?' What tangibles and intangibles go into articulating what that 'measure' is...today I was blessed to be able to readily see the 'measure of a man' for whom I have enormous respect...his name is Gal Hirsch...actually the name he is known by in Israel is 'Brigadier General (Res.) Depth Corp Commander Gal Hirsch of the Israel Defense Force, the renowned IDF...

The middle daughter his beautiful wife bore to him is a 'sabra' like her Mother and Father...a native-born Israeli young woman who has been raised to understand and respect the HERITAGE of her People, the Eternal Covenant Children of The Most High G-d of Israel...and The Land of G-d that she lives in...

She, like her other two sisters, is a beautiful woman - INSIDE and OUTSIDE...she carries herself with the dignity of knowing WHO she is and WHO she came from...and she does this with PRIDE in the HERITAGE of her renowned family...

This young woman is in Poland now...yes, Poland - that Country which has so much Jewish Blood on its' hands...blood that is never blotted out of the memory of any Jewish Man or Woman worldwide...she was there today - in this blood-soaked County - at Maidanek Death Camp - one of the Death Camps where multiple thousands of her Brothers and Sisters were murdered by the Nazis and those complicit with their horrific determination to annihilate the Jews...

Today, this middle daughter of one of Israel's most beloved and respected IDF Generals and Family, carried the Israeli Flag INTO this Death Camp...a LIVING TESTIMONY to the G-d of Israel and His PROMISED OATH to Avraham, Yitzchak and Ya'akov that HE would give them the LAND OF ISRAEL for ALL ETERNITY and that their descendants would INHABIT and INHERIT this LAND for all Eternity...

Later, she carried the Flag of the Nation of Israel into the remains of the Warsaw Ghetto...into this place where the Jews of Poland FOUGHT TO THE DEATH against the forces of Hell aligned against them...

Then she and her colleagues went to Auschwitz - the vilest of the Death Camps of Hitler - and this is what she did there: she gave a speech to her Israeli colleagues gathered in this Crematorium where multiple thousands of Jews were gassed, tortured, abused, starved and butchered ...in her speech, she spoke the exact same words her Decorated and Revered War Hero Father had spoken to the IDF Cadets of the Israel Officers Academy when he was in Command of the IDF Officers Academy...

While Hitler and the thousands of those like him are in the deepest depths of Hell, this young Israeli Woman, the daughter of legendary parents whose lives have been spent serving and protecting their Nation, STOOD STRONG AND PROUD as an Israeli Sabra born of the Biblical Remnant of Israel - and told the listening world:
                               AM YISRAEL CHAI!

How do you 'measure the worth of a man?'...look at his LIFE'S LEGACY!!! This man and his beloved wife have produced a second generation of Israeli Sabras whose LIVES are the MEASURE OF THE MAN!!!