Experience with travel on public transportation or school buses. Suddenly, the pressure of the morning hours multiplied fifty times over. Everyone had to be ready to make it to the bus on time, all while living under temporary conditions in a rental apartment.
A month and a half passed. Our original apartment was still in the midst of renovations. There were still no doors to the rooms, the walls were grey, and the floor was only partially tiled, but our patience had run out. Never mind the crowded conditions, never mind the mess, but what would be with Torah? Everything is temporary, but Torah is eternal. While we were traveling on packed buses in the mornings, with all our efforts, we did not always succeed in arriving on time. The days were passing, and the hours lost when we were late for learning would never return. We were going home!
The children knew that the nice house we were going to have was not yet so nice. But we were ready to suffer through the inconvenience of the rest of the building and renovation on-site. The main thing was for us to be home.
I’m not saying it was a wise decision. I think it would have been more logical to have some more patience and suffer a bit more. Living in a construction site is, after all, not the greatest pleasure either, but that was our choice. With an illogical urge and a determined decision, we packed up, left the rented apartment, and traveled home, moving in to the construction site.
Just a day later, we understood why Hashem had given us that powerful urge to leave the rental apartment. The day after we left, the ceiling collapsed in one of the rooms of that apartment. It happened at an hour when everyone is home and the house is crowded.
What would have happened if we had stayed there for just one more day? Hakadosh Baruch Hu, in His mercy, prevented a huge tragedy for us. We were saved from certain death.
The Guardian of Yisrael neither sleeps nor slumbers.
