MIRACLES FROM UP CLOSE

One of the people familiar to those working for Zaka in Beer Sheva is Shimon Zaguri. Zaguri is a volunteer in the Zaka organization for over fifteen years now. In recent years he has been driving an ambulance for them.

“The Zaka organization is holy work and I wanted a part of it,” he explains. The war this summer made his daily routine much busier than usual. He shared with us some of the miracles he experienced during Tzuk Eitan as a volunteer for Zaka.

Before we talk about the war, tell us about your work for Zaka.

Zaka is a holy organization. It consists of work 24/7. There is no break, no time to rest. Whenever something happens, we immediately go there. It makes no difference what time it happens or what we are busy with at the time.

What was your job during Operation Tzuk Eitan?

Aside from my usual volunteering, I ran from place to place. A typical incident would be, for example, a person heard the siren and rushed to the shelter and on the way he tripped and hurt himself. Boruch Hashem, he wasn’t hurt by the rocket but we arrived and treated him.

What miracles did you experience during the war?

(Emotionally): There were dozens, even hundreds. Whenever they reported a siren in Beer Sheva, we waited tensely for the explosion. Time after time, when we ran to the site, we saw big miracles. Dozens of rockets landed in open areas, but some did fall in built-up places and even between buildings. I remember, for example, one incident in which a rocket fell at the entrance to a house. There were dozens of frightened people and crushed cars, but nobody was hurt. Boruch Hashem! There were some who were shell-shocked but nobody was physically hurt.

What people are afraid of, in these instances, is that a gas balloon will explode. Time and again we saw plenty of destruction without anybody injured, boruch Hashem.

One miracle that I remember, took place in Beer Sheva in the Ramot neighborhood. It was a direct hit on a house that was fully occupied and nobody was hurt. All these instances lack a rational explanation. If it happened once or twice, maybe someone could say it’s a coincidence, but when the same thing keeps happening, you can’t deny it. These are open miracles that we merited on a daily basis.

Here’s a miracle that I personally experienced. As a person who works for Zaka, I’m a bit of a cynic. At the beginning of the war I got a phone call from someone who asked me what was going on. I told him I was on the connecting highway between Urim and Zikim and there was a siren. We exchanged some jokes about sirens since these are places where there is nowhere to run. There is no shelter, no protected area, and we are on the way somewhere and just continue going. With a smile still on my face, I suddenly saw a huge explosion twenty meters away on my right. Two minutes later there was another mighty explosion, this time on the left side of the road. As I said, there is nowhere to run to. Your heart starts beating. Every mortar like that could wreak destruction and cause loss of life, G-d forbid. Even with all the cynicism, you can’t remain indifferent. Every mortar that we saw that did not cause damage, just strengthened the feelings of gratitude to Hashem, along with the pain over the terrible incidents and the many dead.

I hope and wish that we won’t need these miracles anymore, that there will be peace and quiet for all of Am Yisroel wherever they may be, amen.