With my eyes full of tears, I looked at my boy in a wheelchair and my heart screamed to God. How much I wanted to see my son to perform such an essential act for every Jewish boy. But ... unfortunately, my boy cannot walk or talk. What we know is that the he can accept love and give it back to others. When he hugs me, I forget all the difficulties and the words of John 9:3 again fill my heart, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.
At Roni's Bar Mitzvah I read an excerpt from the weekly Torah portion. And in this passage, we find in Deuteronomy 18:10 there is a message for all of us: Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire...
Today, as back then, people sacrifice their children to idols. People are afraid of difficulties. They do not want to give up their selfish desires and they live the way they want. People want to rule over their future at all cost.
God used our son Roni to change our hearts and our attitude towards people and life in general. Our third child was born. Tali, which means my dew, is a perfectly healthy girl who, from infancy, learned to sacrifice for the sake of her older brother. The eldest daughter Moriel, which means God is my teacher, is always ready to help and loves her special brother very much.
Thanks to Roni, my family and people in the congregation have learned and continue to learn a lot.
Isaiah 45:9 says: "Woe to those who quarrel with their Maker, those who are nothing but potsherds among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter,
'What are you making?' Does your work say, 'The potter has no hands'?
Trust the Sovereign God, love, and serve other people, even if they are not like yourself.
As we celebrated Roni's Bar Mitzvah, many people in the congregation could not restrain their tears as my daughters prayed and blessed their brother. Their words were filled with an amazing maturity and it was a special evening in which so much love was shown.
Dear Lord, thank you for entrusting Roni to us. Thank you for the precious lessons that are impossible to learn from books, but to draw them from the school of life.
We are extremely grateful to everyone who, over the years, have traveled this path with us. Please pray for us so that no difficulties can prevent us from fulfilling our call as a family and that the wonders of God might be displayed in the life of Roni.
In Messiah Yeshua, whom we serve, Aleksey, Alla, Moriel, Roni Tali, and Beit Immanuel Congregation.