“Honestly folks, if you know where the bus originates and it is in a frum area and you got on in that area and no Arabs or funny looking people were on with you, then you can pretty well rely on the probability that it belongs to a frum person and is not a chafetz chashud.”
Nechama, one simple question. Why? I know that like me, you have seen the images of what can happen CH’V. You probably know people, as I do, who have survived such piguot or possibly you knew people who did not survive. Why take the chance?
I had the opportunity to get to know a man by the name of Steve Averbach. He was one of the principal trainers of the Magav elite Yamam anti-terror unit, and was known as perhaps the best small-arms shot and instructor in Israel. He was riding the bus to French hill on the afternoon of May 18, 2003, and it was half full. He saw a man get on the bus, dressed as a chareidi Jew. No one else noticed anything suspicious, but he saw something amiss as the man got on the bus. He knew there was a Bais Yaakov that had just let out and the next stop would fill up the bus. He drew his weapon and screamed to get down. The bomber blew himself up, killing seven people, but it would have been many more if Steve hadn’t acted. Steve was wounded and left a quadriplegic. I met him less than a year after the bombing, and again the next year. He had decided that as challenging as his life as a quadriplegic was, he wanted to give over his love of eretz yisrael and am yisrael to young Jews from chu’l, and so he met with birthright groups, Aish groups, and others, as much as he could. Steve succumbed to his injuries a couple of years ago in 2010. TN’B.
Why do I tell you this? Simply because not taking chances and assuming everything is OK, and instead taking action, saves lives.