Freed at Last

A woman freed in California 18 years after being kidnapped at the age of 11 is said to have had a happy reunion with her mother.

The resiliency and basic humanity of the human being preserved over this long ordeal sparks hope for the human condition. This story of return and redemption after years of pain and solitude has immediately fascinated the media because it is the most human of stories, giving proof to the world that humanity overcomes misery because the basis of the human being is good.

No doubt, this child returns home with scars and wounds from her years of oppression, but the love pent up in the parents who never gave up hope for their daughter will restore their child and give her life–the number of years she was gone Chai/Life is gematria 18.

This story has transpired in the beginning of the last month of the Hebrew calendar called Elul an acrostic for: I am to my beloved as my beloved is to me–a time known for return and redemption before the beginning of the New Year at the new moon of the next month.

The Cabala explains that which returns comes back further and goes deeper than where it first emanated, like a beam of light reflected from the face of a mirror never ceases to return.