As they were ready for takeoff, David Miller realized that his tefillin were missing. Whenever and wherever he’d travel, he’d have his tefillin at his side, and now they were nowhere to be found. He remembered that prior to boarding the plane, he answered his wife’s phone call, and when he’d picked back up his personal belongings, he’d left his tefillin behind.
He dashed to the steward to request that they open the doors so that he could go get them, but he was declined. He tried reasoning with them, explaining how much the tefillin meant to him, but his words only fell on deaf ears. “My tefillin are a mere 30-meter walk,” he claimed, but the flight crew maintained that they run on a schedule and opening the doors would delay them. After several minutes of negotiating, David said that he could’ve gone and returned several times, and only because of their abstinence was there such a delay.
Hearing his pleas, nearby passengers joined along with David, and with enough pressure, the flight attendants gave him an ultimatum. “Go ahead,” one of the attendants told him in her eloquent English, adding “but find yourself a new flight.”
Mr. Miller was determined. There was no way he was leaving his tefillin behind — even if it meant missing his flight.
David took the steward up on the offer, hoping that they’d grant his return, especially since it was an important flight. He had a very important meeting at his destination, but he knew he was doing the right thing, even if they wouldn’t allow his return. As he was running to get the tefillin, he was motioning to the steward how the tefillin were lying right before his eyes, but they abruptly closed the door before his nose. By the time he returned, the gate was locked. There was no one there to request reentrance from.
It was hard for David to know he’d miss that important meeting, but he knew that what he did was the right thing.
But...it didn’t take long for that flight to make it to the headlines. That was the second United flight that crashed into the Twin Towers. Had he been on that flight, he wouldn’t be with us any longer.
Due to his devotion to the mitzvah, his life was saved.
Not only was his life saved, but the lives of thousands of others were also saved. The conversation between David and the steward caused an 18-minute delay for the plane’s takeoff, which allowed a whopping 10,000 people to flee the second tower, saving them from tragedy. The plane was scheduled to crash the second tower simultaneously with the first one, multiplying the effect of the collision, and only because of this conversation was the second plane delayed 18 minutes, allowing so many to be spared. (heard from Reb Kobi Levy)
