Our Fire Miracle at 7:30 am

Dear COLlive readers,

I would like to share a miracle that happened to us exactly one year ago. It is because of this miracle that I am alive to tell the tale.

Three people were fast asleep in our home in Jerusalem when blobs of burning plastic began falling out of the air conditioning shaft. The poisonous smell of burning plastic began to spread to all the rooms.

In the first room there was a very elderly and handicapped woman sleeping. In the second room there was a lovely young girl. In the third room, yours truly. We sensed nothing.

The miracle was that my husband was downstairs during those crucial morning hours, right near that AC shaft and began phoning all the emergency numbers.

Usefully, our next door neighbor is a fireman, as well as a member of our shul. He and the fire fighters turned up very quickly to douse the fire and get us far from the fumes.

So what was so miraculous about my husband being right there to prevent a disaster?

He is never home so late. By 7:30 AM he is already in the Old City to daven Shachris.

What had caused him to be home at that hour? The fact that he had just returned from Ukraine, where he davened at the Alter Rebbe’s kever in Hadiatch. Still tired from the trip, he spent an extra few minutes at home.

There was a picture of all five Rebbes just where the fire began – it was mildly scorched. Then the flames stopped. We keep the picture there to remind us of the miracle.

When we daven at kevarim or when we contemplate pictures of the Rebbes, do we realize the power of what we are doing? In our family we got an inkling of that power this time last year.

Ashreinu!
Chana