So in her eyes, heading out to the infamous nature party to meet her best friend there on Shabbat/Simchat Torah wasn't a big contradiction — though as she approached the site of the party, she decided she didn't feel so comfortable with the decision, expressing how much she has always loved Simchat Torah.
Yael decided to head over to her mother's house, where the family would be celebrating Simchat Torah.
Then the rocket barrage started.
Having grown up in the South, Yael initially didn't feel much regarding the rockets, as rocket attacks are routine in that area. She called her best friend to encourage her to get herself to a safe place.
At one point, Yael perceived something unusual and massive about the rocket attack, so she stopped to shelter in a cement bomb shelter near a bus stop.
(These are common the roads of the South, which undergo frequent rocket attacks from the so-called "innocent civilians" of Gaza.)
She was joined by a group of people from a private party.
Soon enough, Yael found herself on the run. No matter where she fled or hid, she kept encountering terrorists.
As they heard shooting and motorcycles, the others fled, but Yael discovered she couldn't drive because she froze up. So she returned to the bomb shelter to call her best friend and tell her about the terrorists, to encourage her to run and hide, and that Yael loved her.
That was their last conversation.
Though terrorists knew Jews would try to hide in these bomb shelters and targeted them — and despite how Yael's car parked outside the bomb shelter gave them clear indication of someone inside — they somehow missed checking the bomb shelter in which Yael hid.
Then she got in her car and she managed to drive.
Later, as Yael sped in her car toward the junction before Kibbutz Mivtachim, she saw what she thought were Israeli soldiers — but when she saw their motorcycles and they started shooting at her, she realized they were terrorists wearing IDF uniforms.
Then she managed to make it into the kibbutz to a friend's home, where Yael felt sure she'd be safe — until terrorists invaded the kibbutz.
The kibbutz security force armed themselves and headed out to liquidate the terrorists at the junction, and they managed to kill some, including one of the leaders of the Nukhba (the elite commando unit of Hamas), but in the battle, the terrorists managed to murder every last member of the kibbutz security force.
Yael found herself with her friend in a worn mamad room.
The heavy iron door was missing.
Shutters over the bullet-proof window were missing (meaning, the terrorist could simply peek in and see anyone there).
The door to the home itself remained unlocked.
In other words, Yael and her friend lacked any means to secure themselves against bloodthirsty terrorists armed with AK-47s and RPGs.
At that point, Yael requested a Sefer Tehillim.
They only one they found was a tiny keychain Tehillim belonging to the friend's mother.
Yael recited to Tehillim and in a twist of events that defy natural explanations, the terrorists never entered the home or saw Yael or her friend.
Yael now recites the morning blessings almost every day and also frequently recites Psalm 100 Mizmor L'Todah.
I'm not saying the people murdered by the Gazan terrorists didn't pray. It makes sense that in their last moments, they experienced some thought of prayer or teshuvah, and some died saving the lives of others.
But it's amazing how many survivors seemed to survived via a series of miraculous "coincidences" which occurred after they had some thought of teshuvah or said some kind of prayer, whether Shema Yisrael or Tehillim or something else.
It's very important for us to realize that, no matter how low our level, even the tiniest baby-step toward Hashem can reap enormous miracles in the blink of an eye.
- saved-from-slaughter-by-5-years-of-pitas-for-yeshivahs.html
- sheltering-under-a-small-palm-tree-the-miraculous-survival-of-a-family-at-kibbutz-beeri.html
- dedication-to-the-spirit-of-shabbat-saves-yet-another-family.html
- how-a-commitment-to-shabbat-during-the-rave-party-saved-one-jew-from-terror-slaughter-during-the-horrific-invasion-from-gaza.html
- how-expressing-gratitude-to-hashem-sustained-an-older-woman-throughout-the-brutal-terrorist-attack-on-kibbutz-beeri.html
- stories-of-how-any-mitzvah-or-even-just-the-mental-commitment-to-a-mitzvah-saved-lives.html