My House was Saved from the Fire

We recently received this harrowing yet inspiring story that happened just before Rosh Hashanah 5779. 

It was Friday night about 10PM, a week before Rosh Hashanah. My husband and I were sitting at the Shabbat table reading the Chut shel Chessed newsletter, in a section dealing with obstacles to arrive in Uman for Rosh Hashanah. 

Suddenly, all the power went out in the house. 

A little voice went off in my head: “Check the electric box! NOW!” As I was running out the door (in our Israeli apartment, the box is in the hallway a few feet from our front door) my husband was asking me: “What’s the point? We can’t do anything anyway, it’s Shabbos…” 

I opened the big wooden doors – and our electric panel was ON FIRE. 

I ran down one flight of stairs to the Vaad Bayit. Thankfully her table was full, and everyone ran out to knock on doors. Within minutes the entire building was running down the stairs for their life. It was a big blessing that I caught the fire so early, because the people on the fifth floor had to pass by the burning box in order to get down the stairs – besides the fact that my husband and I had to get past it with our small children. We literally pulled them from their beds in their PJs and ran – no time to think about shoes and socks, let alone jackets. 

As I was running down the stairs carrying the toddler and holding my oldest son’s hand, I thought to myself: “What can I pray for right now? I can pray that no one should be hurt, but it’s Shabbos. I can’t pray for physicality. I can’t pray for my house. But wait – I can say thank you!” 

As soon as we were out of the building, I grabbed the kids and ran off to the side of the building where no one could see us, and started dancing with them, singing Rabbi Arush’s tune: “Thank you Hashem, we are out of the building alive! Thank you Hashem, that there is an electric fire! We don’t understand, we only believe, that everything is for the best!” I felt like a complete lunatic dancing while my house was on fire, but I knew that it was the truth, and the only thing that would really help me. It felt like at least 20 minutes, but my husband said it was only 5-7 minutes total. 

What a relief to hear those sirens. I never imagined the wailing would sound like music to my ears! Being the first one to see the fire, as soon as the first fire truck pulled up, I ran to tell them exactly where the fire was. I was overcome with emotion watching him run into the darkened building (by now the fire had taken out the power to most of the building) and looked up to see thick black smoke billowing out of the hallway window next to our home. 

A hard hour passed. The children were shaking with fear and we just kept strengthening our emuna and thanking Hashem, and tried to keep them calm. The whole community came out to help with food, drinks, blankets, and hugs. Finally, the fire chief came with the news: “The hallway is completely destroyed but your house is fine.” Of course, we were ecstatic with the news! 

After Shabbos, the cleanup and investigation began. There was a constant flow of fire investigators, the electric company, the insurance adjusters, and more. Every single one said to us: “This is a complete miracle we cannot explain. These fires are never stopped in time because they burn so fast along the electric cables. Your house should be a total loss.” To every single one I pointed to the mezuzah on the door and said, “Rabbi Shalom Arush put this mezuzah on the door and in his merit the house stands!” 

When the electrician came to take down the burned cables, I asked him: “Where did the fire stop exactly?” This grown man burst into tears and cried to me: “To the millimeter of your house! One more millimeter and it would have been inside, and there would have been no stopping it!”  

Rabbi Arush writes in The Garden of Emuna that with emuna, Hashem doesn’t give the fire permission to burn. That is exactly what happened to us. The fire had plenty of time to go into the house; there is no other explanation. Of course, we do have many copies of Likutei Moharan in the house, and Rabbi Arush says that it is a segula against fires as well, since it has the same gematria (numerical value) as esh – fire.  

The miracles didn’t end there. Remember I said that we were reading about obstacles to go to Uman Rosh Hashanah at the time the fire started? I took it as a sign that my husband was still supposed to go, even though the electricians had no idea if they would finish in time to pass inspection and get us electricity before Rosh Hashanah. I told my husband: “It’s just a test! You want us to have electricity for Rosh Hashanah? GO!” We did get power late Thursday afternoon, and as I called my husband to tell him the good news, he said: “I just now walked into the Tzion of Rebbe Nachman!” 

Then, Erev Rosh Hashanah, my next–door neighbors knocked on the door, saying that their  mezuzah  was  pasul  (invalid) because of the fire. Their door was many feet farther away from the flames than ours. In fact, we didn’t even understand how our mezuzah was still there – the glass on the viewer on the door had melted, and there was black soot on the inside of the door right where the mezuzah is, which meant that the fire and smoke had passed right over our WOODEN case. For sure our mezuzah was also invalid, right? 

WRONG. I called my husband to ask him what to do: After all, the front door mezuzah is in some ways the most important. He calmed me down and promised to have it checked as soon as he got home from Uman. He made good on his word, and dutifully ran over immediately to the sofer who wrote it. They unrolled the scroll and found it in perfect condition! The sofer wiped off a little bit of soot that had gotten inside and handed it back to my husband! 

*** 

If you also have a “Say Thank You and See Miracles” story you would like to share, please send it to us! Stories may be posted on our website anonymously and sent to Rabbi Arush. 

Please email rachel.avrahami@breslev.co.il with your story.