Saving Tzion | Rabbi Yechiel Spero

Last Wednesday, we heard the news. Somehow, an 8-year-old boy was lost. He was on vacation with his family, standing right outside the Lava River Caves, and he turned the wrong way and his parents looked and they called out his name, but he was nowhere to be found. And as we can only begin to imagine, panic set in. Word went out and people started to daven. And we’ve heard this story before. And while sometimes there’s good news, often there is not, and a sickening pit developed in the collective stomachs of Klal Yisroel. It was nightfall, and now it began to rain. 57 degrees. Put yourself for a moment in Tzion's shoes. You're 8 years old and you start to hear the sounds of the night, the scary sounds of darkness. And Tzion said: Hashem has forsaken me. I'm completely lost. It's the story of an 8-year-old boy, but it's the story of a nation that's been lost for 2,000 years. We made some wrong turns, we've turned our head where we shouldn't have. This is our story. And we wonder, Are we going to be lost? Will anyone find us? Well, Klal Yisroel set into motion, like only we can. Air Hatzolah, Chaverim, groups from throughout the country came. I believe it was around 11:40 Arizona time, word went out, He’s been found. I know that when I heard the news, I started to cry a little bit, and then we started to sing and dance and scream it out loud, Tzion is found. Ten minutes later, I got a text on my phone. You know what we've done? We've created a ציבור that is saving the world. Because the power of Shmiras Einayim is so very strong. And that when someone gets lost, when one of us gets lost, when one of us has made the wrong turn, Vayimaen, the Ko’ach of the ציבור, all of us together, we're looking out for each other, we're saving each other. It is now Elul, and in Elul, we've all made wrong turns. We may wonder, Is Hashem going to give up on me? Is He going to forsake me? And the answer is, Is a mother going to give up on searching for her child? We might have turned away, but the Ribono shel Olam will never stop looking for us. And as long as we continue to look for Him, He will run over to us, He will hold us, He will hug us, He will lift us, and He will let us know, forever, that we are His.