On Oct.12, 2023, five days after the Simchat Torah massacre, at a sheva brachot (post-wedding week of celebration meals) in Kiryat Sefer, Rabbi Chayim Zaid told the following incredible story:
This week one of the girls from Ohr Hachaim seminary contacted me and said she had 6,000 shekels saved, which she wanted to use to help Klal Yisrael (the entirety of the Jewish People). She asked me to buy 6000 shekels worth of tzitzit to distribute to soldiers in the south of the country.
I tried to dissuade her from giving away all her savings, telling her there's a limit to how much one is allowed to give to tzedaka, but she was adamant. In the end, I managed to find a way of acquiring 6,000 shekels worth of tzitzit without her having to pay the entire sum.
After I got them, she said to me, "Wonderful. Now, I would like you to go with my brother to the south and distribute them."
"You've got to be kidding" I retorted. "I helped you until this point, but look for someone else to do the rest."
To the South
But this girl was persistent. She said, "You can do it. You have connections."
After arguing for a while, I agreed to try to find a way to do it. I contacted the Hidabroot organization and they arranged for an army officer to take me in an army vehicle to a base in the south.
We set out in a car full of tzitzit garments and drove until we reached Route 262. There we were stopped by an army blockade. "You can't go any further," they said. As much as we explained and argued, they wouldn't give in. Eventually, they told us that three terrorists had infiltrated nearby. Two were intercepted, but one got away and was somewhere in the vicinity, so no civilians were being allowed into the area.
After waiting about an hour, I approached the officer in charge and used all my powers of persuasion to get him to let us through. He agreed to try to see what he could do.
Giving out Tzitzit
He walked off and made some phone calls, and then came back and told me that they would arrange for a convoy to accompany us to the base - a few jeeps in front of us and a few behind us. A Brigadier General got into my vehicle and we set off.
As we were driving, he said to me, "After this is over the government will certainly appoint commissions to investigate all the mistakes and omissions that took place on that Simchat Torah morning.
"But I already know what the conclusions will be. It's as clear as day: ‘It was the hand of G-d.’ (Psalms 118:23)
We traveled until we reached the base, where we got out of the car and started giving out the tzitzit. I saw a soldier standing a little distance away and wanted to go over to him to give him a pair of tzitzit, but he motioned to me not to come closer.
Divine Protection
So I rolled the tzitzit up into a ball and threw them to him. It was windy, and a gust of wind blew the tzitzit ball away from the soldier towards a bush. Suddenly, someone stood up from behind the bush. It was the terrorist. He saw something flying towards him and it startled him. The soldiers shot at him...and propelled him to the place reserved for terrorists in the afterlife, wrapped in tzitzit!
Biographical note: Rabbi Chayim Zaid is a head of the metivta [yeshiva for younger teenage boys] in Yeshivat Nachalat Shlomo, located in the Kiryat Herzog neighborhood of Bnei Brak. He is well known for the hundreds of video and audio lectures and lessons in Hebrew, many with English subtitles, he has provided for Kol-HaLashon.com and TorahAnytime.com.
Adapted by Yerachmiel Tilles from a report by Devorah Plaut, whose son was present when Rabbi Zaid told the story. Rabbi Tilles of Tsfat is co-founder of ASCENT. His email list for stories is in its 28th year. To join the list a/o his WhatsApp group for Saturday night Audio, Video and Zoom stories, go to AscentOfSafed.com or WhatsApp +972-526-770-137.
