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NEWS
A Letter from the Scene of the Bomb in Beis Yisroel
by Moshe Kupfer, Yeshivas Brisk, Yerushalayim
Being someone who heard -- or rather felt -- last week's
blasts in the Beis Yisroel neighborhood while walking in the
streets of Geula, I felt some kind of strange connection to
the threat and even more so to the wondrous miracle that
became clear in the end. Many different people from various
backgrounds tried to express themselves in various ways, but
the message was the same: we merited to witness an open act
of Hashem in the backyard of perhaps the biggest Torah
institution in the world.
I was at the scene moments later and the feeling of
overwhelming relief and jubilation is hard to describe
within the written boundaries of pen and paper. The drama of
the army, bomb squads, police and rescue units only
emphasized the scale of the tragedy that had knocked on the
door and was averted in this ultra-orthodox community. One
of the better known stories of Hashgacha, which was
subsequently printed in the secular newspapers, was of the
gas truck. It had driven through the street 10 minutes prior
to the blast and had stopped on the next block to make a
delivery. An alteration in timing would have spelled untold
devastation.
But the less known fact of the day is truly remarkable. The
car containing the explosives was parked right outside a
fruit and vegetable store. This store, as all fruit stores
in Eretz Yisroel, is busiest Thursday afternoon in
preparation for Shabbos. Indeed the face of the store was
totally destroyed -- a scene of twisted metal, broken glass
and melted plastic. So why only one injury?
The owner of the store had locked up moments before to go
daven mincha up the street in the Meah Shearim
Shtieblach, thus no one was in the store at the time of
the explosion!
The threat is very real, and we cannot rely on miracles, so
we must thank Hashem for the past and do teshuva for
the future so that we shouldn't come into such frightening
situations.
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