Rabbi M. L. continues:
My mother a”h was nifteres when I was a child, and my father’s second wife raised me devotedly from the time I was twelve years old. When I was chozer bitshuvah I kept up the connection with my father and his wife, and from time to time I came to visit the kibbutz together with my wife (without the children). I brought new-old concepts with me. I would tell them words of chizuk, nice things, and speak words of emunah. I especially emphasized how Hakadosh Baruch Hu sees everyone and is mashgiach over each and every person. I told stories of hashgachah pratis and said that if we only delve into things, each person can feel the hashgachah pratis. These words of mine had an influence, and from then on, every time I came, my father’s wife had a few things she had collected to tell me, stories of hashgachah pratis that had happened to her.
My father passed away a few years ago, and since then she has lived alone. My sister also lives on the kibbutz, and on Motzaei Shabbos she told me of the terrible tragedy that the kibbutz experienced. “Come,” she told me, “come and give us chizuk. We’re waiting here for people like you.”
I was not able to speak to “Ima” on Sunday. She was not capable of talking about anything. The next day, Monday, we met, and then she told me what had happened to her:
“I heard the sirens, and a moment later the booms. Such a sense of fear grabbed hold of me that my entire body grew hard as a rock. I tried to move my lips, and saw that I was able to do that, so what did I say? I said vidui, and I asked Hashem to forgive me and to watch over me. I remembered all your good words, and I said, ‘Ribbono shel Olam, You love me. You are with me. You’re watching over me. I have nothing to fear.’
“I said this again and again, until I felt that my body was slackening and I was able to move. I got up and took something to eat, and the whole time I was hearing the sounds of war and I strengthened myself: Hashem is with me, Hashem is watching over me. He is mashgiach on me. I am not alone. Do you understand? No human being was with me, but I was not alone. It was clear to me that the Creator of the world was not leaving me and that nothing would happen to me. This calmed me down.
“In the end, the terrorists did not reach our home. They didn’t even enter our row of houses. Tell me, is this not the Borei Olam, who watched over me within the inferno?”
