The Best Fire Insurance

The bio attached to the end of all my articles says that I grew up in a “far-off valley.” Well, that valley happens to be the San Gabriel Valley that has suddenly skyrocketed into the news of the entire planet because of the Eaton Fire. That fire is still raging as I type and is one of the many wildfires burning around Los Angeles right now. Although Eaton is not nearly as affluent a neighborhood as the Palisades, entire swaths of the city are rubble. Even the Bank of America branch burned. My mom had to evacuate her home, although her zone had its evacuation warning lifted on Friday morning – in just enough time for her to clean up and get ready for Shabbat, Baruch Hashem.  

So, while the emails continue to come in from my local and federal representatives in wake of the fire, I want to share a few snippets with you to remind you (and me) that ein od milvado – there is only God, and He alone did, does, and will do everything. And no fire is too big for Him.  

Please note, I am not trying to implicate anyone or say anyone deserved anything – we do not understand the judgements of Heaven, nor point fingers when people are suffering. I only want to suggest some lessons we can all learn from the inferno. 

 
The Israel Supporter’s House Still Stands 

The first miracle that totally blows my mind happened to a good friend of ours for decades. She has sent some large donations to our Support our Soldiers effort, and the comments she sent me after the last one just warmed my heart. With so much antisemitism surrounding us, it gave me so much strength that, thank God, there are still non-Jews out there who know the truth and have their heads and hearts in the right place. 

Well, God sure paid her back! She sent my mom a message that while her [our friend’s] garden and its trellises burned – the rest of the house is fully intact! Unlike the houses of all her neighbors… Totally crazy, since the trellises are connected to the house and there is no good explanation of why the fire didn’t continue to burn down the house. We all know that the fire hydrants had no water, and the fire department was severely understaffed. 

Rabbanit Arush promises that those who support Emuna Outreach merit special Divine protection. My friend’s donation is a small pittance compared to the worth of her home! A true miracle!

My Mom’s Rental Still Stands 

A similar story unfolded with the rental house that my mom owns in Altadena. When I first found out about the evacuation orders, I asked my mom about the rental since I heard that both cities were affected. She said, “Oh, it’s about a mile away from the evacuation orders, the rental is fine.” Famous last words, as we say. 

Turns out the firefighters made their “last stand” at the house, and while the entire area is completely burned to the ground – their rental, and one house next to it, are the only ones standing. A small addition to the house burned down, but overall, the house and its contents are fine.  

My mom also supports Emuna Outreach and even did a pidyon nefesh for herself and the situation with both her house and the rental… A few hundred dollars for a pidyon, and some hundreds of thousands of dollars saved! 

This story also helps you understand the sheer magnitude of the disaster. In decades of living in the foothill mountains, we have never heard of losing more than a few houses in a fire. A fire chewing MILES into the city could never have existed in my wildest dreams. My mom commented that the insurance crisis is going to be even bigger now, since her house marked as high risk stands, but the area of the rental was considered the lowest risk possible. Clearly in the land of DEI incompetent hires, there is no such thing as “low risk.” 

The Atheist Rabbi’s House Burned Down 

Sadly, the “Rabbi” of the Reform synagogue that I went to while growing up didn’t fare so well. While he evacuated, his house burned to the ground. When trying to convince me from returning to Hashem and to a Torah lifestyle years ago, he admitted that he himself doesn’t believe in God! I sure hope he repented from that mistake a long time ago, but for argument’s sake – Rabbi Arush says that we only get Divine providence according to the level of our emuna. Someone who believes only in chance – gets chance, and in that fire area, there was no chance of coming out unscathed. Of course he didn’t deserve special Divine protection.  

The “Temple” That Accepted LGBT Burned Down 

Everyone is talking about Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center burning down. While it’s officially “Conservative,” some of the staff is LGBT and they accept this inversion openly. My mom wondered aloud when after the “big wedding” of a staff member to her female partner took place on a Sunday some years ago, before Shabbat that same week a fire already destroyed a good part of the sanctuary! 

Sadly, they didn’t understand the memo from Hashem that they should repent, and the entire place went up in flames – one of the first victims of the fire. My mom said that two days later, it was still burning. 

Divine Wrath? 

In previous occasions when there were fires around Israel, tzaddikim have said that fires can burn for a number of spiritual causes. One cause is the fire of sexual lust and immorality that creates the fire of destruction. DEI is the outward aspect of the problem, but societal acceptance of these inversions is the core of the issue. This post on X is just one very sad example. 

The tzaddikim explain that whatever people do hidden in their own homes, “for Hashem are the hidden [sins]” – such people are punished individually by God. But if the society views such sins as acceptable and legal and allows them to be flaunted publicly – then the community or society as a whole is punished by God. Although particularly righteous individuals can merit special Divine protection, they are not always spared depending on many factors which we cannot know in this world, but generally it relates to how hard they tried to influence the people around them to repent. 

Whatever the spiritual causes, the gross negligence and skewed priorities of local and state officials were clearly used by Hashem to create this catastrophe. As much as possible, we need to work on cleaning house – both by replacing the incompetent leaders, and by our own repentance! 

*** 

Rachel Avrahami grew up in Los Angeles, CA, USA in a far-off valley where she was one of only a handful of Jews in a public high school of thousands. She found Hashem in the urban jungle of the university. Rachel was privileged to read one of the first copies of The Garden of Emuna in English, and the rest, as they say, is history. She made Aliyah and immediately began working at Breslev Israel.   
  
Rachel is now the Editor of Breslev Israel’s English website. She welcomes questions, comments, articles, and personal stories to her email: rachel.avrahami@breslev.co.il.