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Everyone has wishes for the new year. I begin with gratitude for the year that has passed.

In the Jewish tradition, there is a blessing thanking God for bringing us to this moment alive: Shehecheyanu ve’kiyemanu ve’higi’anu la’zman hazeh. I am deeply grateful to be alive at 88. Many of my friends are gone. For me, the new year is a time to express gratitude that I have been spared.

My wish is to celebrate the next new year with my family, in comparatively good health, surrounded by the love of my family, my friends, and the people I serve. I am still working—finishing a new book—and I hope that the next new year will find me in the midst of writing yet another one.

What else do I wish for myself?

I wish for the strength to accompany my will: the strength to practice what I teach and preach about mutual trust and respect. It is easy to talk about it; it is not easy to live it. That is my challenge. I am making progress—but not enough.

That is all I wish for myself, and I do not feel guilty focusing on myself first. It is imperative that we feel good about ourselves before we wish the universe to feel good about itself. Strength comes from the inside out, not the other way around.

As for my family, may they continue to show the strength of character they have demonstrated so far building their families with values of integrity, honesty, commitment to truth, health, and love.

One important wish I hold is for a miracle: that my brothers and sisters in Israel will open hearts that have been closed since the Holocaust. Fear now drives behavior, leading to the use of power to solve problems.

It is time to seek peace. Peace will not come from closed hearts or from fear. It will come from opening our hearts and acting out of faith—faith that there are Palestinians who also want peace, and that we can develop a partnership with them. They deserve peace, meaningful employment, and a future for themselves and their children, just as we do.

There is no place for them to go, just as there is no place for us to go. We are occupying the same piece of land, and we must learn to share it—as partners.

Yes, I am seeking a miracle: for myself, to learn to love without fear; and for my people, to realize that problems are solved only with love.

Wishing you a better year than the last one,