On Yud-Beis Tamuz, the Chag HaGeula, Chabad Chassidim will celebrate the release of the Rebbe Rayatz. At the same time, another Chassidishe farbrengen will take place which will be a thanksgiving gathering for another miracle that took place 23 years ago on this date. * Beis Moshiach hears a firsthand account of the dramatic story that occurred that morning on the way to school.
By Bentzion Sasson
23 years have passed and nevertheless, it feels as though it just happened. A few days ago, I passed by the spot, that black, asphalt road, on my way to Rochel Imeinu. There, on the side of the barrier, is the silent monument to Janet Kadosh who was murdered in an attack I was witness to many years ago.
I will never forget that dramatic event we were part of, when we were kids. This day, Yud-Beis Tammuz, a day of miracles, is an excellent time to reminisce in order “To thank and praise Your great name, for Your miracles and Your wonders and Your salvations.”
The year 5752, I was a young boy, only eleven years old.
Not long before, we still lived in Kiryat Arba. At a certain point, my parents decided to move to Beitar Ilit, and they began looking for a Chabad school for me and my younger brother Yinon.
Some time before school started, my parents found out about the plans of a group of parents from Beitar Ilit who were interested in providing their children with a Chabad chinuch. The plan was to arrange for daily transportation from Beitar Ilit to Gilo in Yerushalayim where there was a Chabad elementary school.
My parents liked the idea and a group of ten boys was formed. Rabbi Amiel Fish, a teacher at the school, was responsible for the group.
Every day, the driver made the rounds and picked up the boys and then we would head to the gate of the city where a military escort awaited us, sometimes one jeep and sometimes two. They would escort us until Machsom 300 (a checkpoint barrier) located between the exit from Beit Lechem and the entrance to Yerushalayim. This military escort was necessary due to the great danger this trip entailed by traversing Arab settlements.
On our way we passed near Kever Rochel every morning where we stopped on the side of the road and recited chapter twenty of T’hillim for the recovery of the Rebbe MH”M. The military escort would also stop and wait until we finished saying T’hillim, and from there we would continue toward Machsom 300 where we parted from the soldiers and continued on our own for a few minutes until the school.
This was our daily routine and it was done to obtain a Chabad chinuch.
***
Thursday, 12 Tammuz 5753, the routine was broken.
7:40 in the morning, facing the Kever of Rochel Imeinu.
After a brief stop in which we said T’hillim for the Rebbe, we were going to continue toward Machsom 300 but the military jeep accompanying us disappeared. After a few minutes of waiting, it was decided that we would continue driving toward the school.
Forty minutes earlier, at 7:00, at the French Hill junction, two terrorists boarded an Egged bus and after a few seconds they opened fire. The driver lost control of the bus and rode up on a traffic island, which caused the terrorists to lose their balance for a few moments. In a moment of alertness, the driver opened the doors of the bus and the passengers fled for their lives.
The terrorists panicked and looked for a way to escape. A car driven by Janet Kadosh was passing by. They hijacked the car, loaded up their terrorist equipment and began driving south toward Beit Lechem.
8:05. Machsom 300, Beit Lechem.
Our van, which was driving toward the school, entered the checkpoint area. Although it was normally a time of busy traffic, it was surprisingly empty. Those who know the place know that the checkpoint is divided into four lanes – three toward Yerushalayim and one for those coming from Yerushalayim toward Beit Lechem. When we entered the empty checkpoint, we turned toward the leftmost lane which is the closest to the lane going in the other direction.
Even though the media had already reported about the carjacking, for some reason an inexplicable calmness prevailed at the checkpoint. The soldiers and police looked relaxed. We were still driving on the exit lane when suddenly, with no prior warning, a car coming from Yerushalayim entered the area. Within a few seconds it was opposite us in the opposite lane. That is when events began to speed up like in a horror movie.
The car looked suspicious to the soldiers and they ordered it to stop, but instead of stopping the driver pressed on the gas pedal in order to get into the lane leading to Beit Lechem so they could evade their pursuers. The soldier, Eitan Cohen, who was stationed at the beginning of the checkpoint, ran toward the entrance to the fourth lane, quickly set up facing the lane and began opening fire at the driver in order to stop the car. He aimed well and the car stopped about a half a meter from our van. Just a small plastic barrier separated us from the terrorists’ getaway car.
A few seconds later, the driver’s door opened and a body was thrown out which afterward was discovered to be that of Janet Kadosh, may Hashem avenge her blood, the owner of the car whom they murdered. Another few seconds passed and suddenly we heard the commander shout, “A grenade!” In a split second, all the soldiers threw themselves down to the ground. We kids did not understand what was going on but knew it was something terrible. Some of the children panicked and screamed in fear while others cried. Seconds later, another grenade was thrown. This time the sound of its landing could be heard loud and clear for it had fallen on our roof!
R’ Fish screamed at us to lie down on the ground and not get up. Our driver, Mr. Chaim Lalom, thought it was his final moments and he started counting backward, anticipating the explosion, while also screaming Shma Yisroel.
Silence. The stillness of death. Nothing happened. Our terror turned into surprise.
The tense silence was broken a few seconds later by a long volley of bullets that rent the air. At this point, the scene got even more intense. Additional soldiers arrived as reinforcements and they also opened fire at the terrorists’ car. That was a minute and a half that is etched in my mind forever.
In the meantime, our driver managed to get up and move our van and get us quickly out of the lane heading toward Yerushalayim. A few seconds later we heard a loud explosion. It was the terrorists’ car, which had caught fire and seconds later blew up with a mighty noise because of the pipe bombs in it. To think that just seconds earlier we were right there, facing it, only a meter and a half away.
We kept driving while the sounds of shooting reverberated in our ears along with the sound of the explosions. Some of the kids were still on the floor of the vehicle. Dozens of security, fire, and rescue vehicles streamed toward the checkpoint. The pandemonium was indescribable.
Until today, I can hear the cries of some of the children in the van, crying hysterically.
***
“When we got to school,” recalls R’ Amiel Fish, “I got off the van in order to check and see if we had sustained damage from the shooting. Incredibly, there was no sign of anything. I felt the Rebbe’s bracha which the Kurant family had received when they had the idea of putting together a group of boys to travel to Gilo every day.” (See sidebar)
“A few minutes after arriving at school, the story of the miracle began to spread and we, children of Beitar, were the stars. The administration of the school brought us to a room to try and help us calm down. During the day, psychologists and social workers came from the Education Ministry in order to speak to us and try and get us back to ourselves.”
The principal, R’ Dovid Dahan, recalls that day too:
“That day, we were in the middle of preparing for the celebration that night, a graduation combined with a Yud-Beis Tammuz farbrengen. In the midst of that, the children from Beitar showed up in shock and told us about the shooting, explosions and the terrible things they saw. We had them calm down and tell us what happened.”
At the event later that day, the group of students repeated what happened to a reporter from Hamodia who published it on the front page of the next day’s paper.
From there they continued to the hall where the graduation festivities took place. A surprise awaited them. R’ Fish, who was still shaken up by the day’s events, asked permission to speak and he told the audience the miracle that occurred, at the end of which he recited the HaGomel blessing very emotionally.
On the following Shabbos, there was a farbrengen in Gilo which was a thanksgiving gathering for the big miracle. A similar farbrengen took place in Beitar Ilit, where the children came from. The third Shabbos meal in shul turned into a seudas hodaa.
R’ Fish, “As we know, Yaakov refused to send Binyamin to Mitzrayim because of the dangers of the road, ‘and a tragedy will befall him.’ The holy Ohr HaChayim explains that the word ‘derech’ refers to the Chevron-Shechem road, the road the children travel on daily. Interestingly, three of the ten boys have the name Binyamin.
“Every year, on that date, Chag HaGeula, I try to go back to that spot and recite the blessing, ‘Blessed is the One who did a miracle for me,’ together with my children who also experienced the miracle.”
THEY SHOULD LEARN IN GILO
When a group of Lubavitcher parents who lived in Beitar Ilit discussed their children’s schooling in the Chabad school in Gilo, they were aware of the danger, in light of the sensitive security situation at the time, a period of time when hundreds of people were murdered, may Hashem avenge their blood.
R’ Aharon Kurant, the father of Yosef Yitzchok and Mendy, decided to write to the Rebbe and ask for his bracha. His letter said, “As far as where our sons Yosef Yitzchok and Menachem Mendel will learn this upcoming school year, since there is a group who wants to travel to learn in the Chabad school in the Gilo neighborhood of Yerushalayim, but the traveling is dangerous – past Arab settlements. Therefore, I ask for the Rebbe’s advice and blessing about whether our sons should also travel on this road to learn in Gilo or wait until they build a road that circumvents the Arab settlements, and for the
“I request a bracha that Hashem protect them in all their ways, materially and spiritually, nefesh and ruach, and that they become Chassidim, G-d fearing, and scholars. And that we merit openly seeing Moshiach soon. Aharon ben Ester Kurant.”
A day later, R’ Aharon received a response from the secretary, R’ Leibel Groner, who said he read the letter to the Rebbe who nodded to indicate they should travel to the Chabad school in Gilo.
“The Rebbe’s positive answer gave us much strength,” recalled R’ Kurant in an interview given ten years ago. And thanks to this answer from the Rebbe they understood how important it is for children to learn in institutions that follow the teachings of the Rebbeim, and that the Rebbe took responsibility for the children’s security.
R’ Kurant concluded that interview emotionally, “I feel that the Rebbe watched over my sons in two senses, physically and spiritually. The Chabad chinuch paid and is paying dividends, baruch Hashem. Today, my sons are T’mimim in the Rebbe’s army and are mekusharim to the Rebbe MH”M.”