Community Magazine January 2009

56 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE O N A HOT , sunny August day, I sat on the deck outside with my daughter and her friends, watching the children playing in the backyard. As the children enjoyed themselves running around the trees, swarms of mosquitoes flew around us on the deck, biting us relentlessly, literally covering our legs with bites. Finally, having had enough of the heat and the itches, I told everyone to come inside. We all entered the house, and my daughter, her friends and I sat around the kitchen nursing our bites but disappointed that our enjoyment of the outdoors was cut short by some pesky insects. I’m sure we wouldn’t have been the first to wonder why Hashem ever created mosquitoes in the first place. Not 20 minutes later, my 4 year-old granddaughter stormed into the kitchen and shouted, “Grandma, a tree fell in the backyard!” We paid little attention to the report, brushing it off as childhood imagination. After all, there wasn’t a breeze in the air or a cloud in the sky; why would a tree fall? And so we stayed inside enjoying the air conditioned kitchen. By my granddaughter didn’t let up. Again she came inside and yelled, “Grandma, a tree really fell down!” We all got up to look, and, sure enough, a huge, 14-foot tree lay horizontally on the ground – right where the children had been playing! I then looked down at my mosquito bites, and gave thanks to Hashem for this incredible mosquito miracle! Eileen Mizrahi Your Stories of Everyday Miracles T HE BIG DAY was preceded by weeks of excitement, planning, decorating and hard work. On the Thursday before the Shabbaton, a group of students and staff members of Tichon Bnot Rachel High School volunteered to check into the hotel – the JEP Shabbaton Center in Fallsburg, New York – to get the facility ready for the big weekend. Their van left the school a bit later than expected, resulting in some rush hour delays on the road. When they finally approached the hotel at around 7:30pm, they peered outside the window and saw – to their horror – clouds of smoke and raging flames. The hotel was on fire! The school administration spent the next several hours con- vening, making phone calls, and struggling with the difficult questions of whether and how the Shabbaton could proceed. With some hard work, determination, and, most of all, Hashem’s intervention, the administrators managed to relocate the event to the Raleigh Hotel. Amazingly, the food had somehow survived the blaze, and plenty of time remained to transport it to the Shabbaton’s new location. After candle lighting on Friday night, the girls and teach- ers all assembled to hear welcoming words from the principal of Tichon Bnot Rachel, Mrs. Leah Diskind. Chills ran up and down the audience’s spines as Mrs. Diskind emotionally thanked Hashem for the great miracle He h a d performed. “Just imagine, girls,” Mrs. Diskind remarked, “if the van had gotten there an hour earlier and your friends and teachers would have been inside the building when the fire started!” One shudders to think what would have happened to the group had the van left on time, or if traffic hadn’t been so heavy. The unanswered questions about what could have been were a stark contrast to the certainty with which Mrs. Diskind ascribed the groups merit for being spared. She cited the verse in Mishle (21:23), “He who guards his mouth and tongue guards his soul from troubles.” The com- mitment to refrain from improper speech guarantees a person protection. Not coincidentally, the very theme of the Shabbaton was “Purity of Speech.” Incredibly, even before the program got underway, the students and staff experienced firsthand the pro- tective powers of this quality as Bnot Rachel’s students and staff were granted protection from a potentially catastrophic blaze. Students & Staff of Tichon Bnot Rachel High School Marvelous Mosquitoes The Scheduled Inferno