There was recently an article that made the headlines that was on the one hand paradoxically alarming and yet somewhat heartwarming. As our Rabbis have told us that everything one see, hear or experience has a lesson in it, so let us try to find a possible deeper point imbedded within one aspect of the following story.

                 What happened was that a young boy wondered away from his family and ended up at the airport. Once there he went through passport control and various security checks even though he didn’t have a passport, ticket or boarding pass. He apparently just moved along with everybody else, like a family member. He then ended up boarding a plane that flew him to another country.

                Within the written article, it was pointed out the failings of the airport personnel and of course, we understand that the child, even if he acted with an innocence of heart, still acted improperly, that been said, underneath the surface is to be “mined” an inspiring thought about the actions of that adventurous child within lays within many of us.

                The good news, as the three weeks has passed and Elul approaches, is that even if we feel that our spiritual “passports” haven’t yet been renewed and we haven’t yet fully paid our “ticket fees”, by staying closely attached to those who have obtained their “tickets and boarding passes” through their mitzvos and ma’asim, hopefully we will all pass through the “security and check points” together, thereby allowing us to “take off” as one united family.

          P.S. – The child was safely returned to the care of his, no doubt relieved, family.