A Chareidi tour guide told Kikar H’Shabbat about how he and the group he was leading narrowly missed being involved in the Ein Gedi disaster that occurred on Thursday morning.
Nuriel Lasri, a resident of Telzstone, is a Chareidi tour guide who leads both religious and secular youth groups.
“I’m still shaking from the magnitude of the neis that occurred to me and the group I was supposed to guide, all thanks to being makpid on hearing Kriyas HaTorah and davening with a minyan,” Lasri told Kikar on Thursday after the tragic incident.
“The group I was supposed to guide arrived in the Dead Sea area on Wednesday and stayed in a hostel there. I told them our hike in Ein Gedi will begin at 8:30 a.m.”
“But what happened that morning was that davening at my yishuv took longer than expected and since I didn’t want to miss Kriyas HaTorah, I arrived late at Ein Gedi.”
“They didn’t welcome us nicely due to the delay and it was very unpleasant – for me personally, because I’m normally never late, and I felt embarrassed in front of the group I was leading.”
“Finally, they came to start us off on the trail and then they started receiving the reports about what happened inside and suddenly my group understood the neis that occurred. Everyone in the group who was upset – because of the Chareidi guide who was so “obsessed” with Kriyas HaTorah and wasn’t on time – understood that a neis had occurred and apologized to me that they had gotten angry at me. They understood that it was Hashgacha – not because of the Torah but in the zechus of the Torah.
“And I course used the opportunity to increase their yiras Shamayim and teach them what a Jew believes – that nothing stam happens – everything is from Above,” Lasri concluded.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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13 Responses
Wow unbelievable!
Did anyone consider how a story like this sounds to the family of the boy who was killed? They are also Shomrei Torah uMitzvos, and they likely also went to Shul that morning for Shachris – but somehow, that was not enough to save their son.
A bit of sensitivity to one’s fellow Jews is in order here.
an Israeli Yid
I don’t understand. He thought it was ok to steal from those who hired him, and he also wasn’t concerned about going to a place full of naked people.
We don’t change the Torah because of a nes. That’s in parshas shoftim explicitly. We kill a navi sheker
What Krias hatorah was there on Wednesday?
> DavidtheKanoi
The group arrived on Wednesday for an overnight stay before starting the official tour the next morning. The actual tour (when the incident happened) was Thursday morning.
@David
Read the article again.
They arrived Wednesday but the tour/accident happened Thursday morning.
> Shimon Nodel
I don’t understand your “naked people” remark. Where does it state there were any such alleged naked people? But in any case, you may as well make the same complaint about people who go to a mikveh.
What about the boy R”L that was killed? Do you incompetent imbeciles even consider before posting? Where’s the Hashgacha in a boy dying instead of you, because you feel entitled to everyone else’s time? Ugh! Refuah Shleima to you all
We can’t understand Hashem’s ways and why He decides to take some people early. I have had some close friends and relatives be niftar at a young age; my sincere condolences to the family of the injured and Niftar, my heart goes out to them, Hamakom yinachem…. I do think it is in place to say that that group was saved because the guide was makpid on Krias Hatorah and davening with a minyan. Elul is a good time for increasing our commitment to davening, Torah, Mitzvos, and Hashem.
I don’t understand why people are so worked up.
כשם שמברכים על הטוב מברכים על הרע
We must thank Hashem for the Nassim, while acknowledging that we don’t understand the tragedies. Why is this a contradiction?
*nissim
Menachem – this individual should definitely be grateful for having been saved, and making a private se’udas hoda’a would definitely be appropriate. However, the publicizing of his story about how his zechus for having stayed in Shul for Krias haTorah is what saved him when another family.- particularly one.that is also shomer Torah uMitzvos – lost.their child in the tragedy is in extremely poor taste.
I heard a story years ago from a man whose daughter survived a terror attack with only a scratch – he said that each year, his immediate family celebrated.the day she survived as another birthday, since she was given a new lease on life that day. However, he said that they deliberately keep it low-key and limit it to immediate family because in the same attack, his next-door-neighbor lost his daughter – and it would be incredibly insensitive of him to celebrate his good fortune publicly on the day his neighbor mourns his own loss. Similar sensitivity is what’s called for here – and is unfortunately missing.
an Israeli Yid
@anIsraeliYid (and others):
I humbly but tentatively disagree, as I would think that Daas Torah should make this call.
Regarding your story about the neighbors, it obviously would make sense to keep it more low-key there, as they are neighbors with each other. But when a “freak occurrence” was the cause of this terrible tragedy R”L L”A, and a man made a kiddush Hashem by that same incident, I think that is worthy of note.
When 9/11 happened here, there were many Jews who were also saved because davening and slichos went later, etc. However, many Jews did perish in that horrific tragedy. Yet, similar stories were publicized about those Jews who were saved, despite others not having merited that saving even if they also went to shul that morning, etc.