David Miller* [*not his real name], a pious observant Jew was at
Logan Airport getting ready to board United Flight 175. He was going to LA on an important business trip and had to make this flight.
A lot depended on it.
He boarded the plane, watched the doors close, and sat down.
Suddenly he remembered that he left his tefillin (ritual boxes with straps worn by Jewish men in prayer) in the terminal boarding area.
He politely asked the stewardess if he could go back and retrieve his tefillin, which were sitting just a few feet from the gate.
She told him that once the doors of the plane closed, no one was allowed off the plane.
Not about to take this sitting down, he asked if he could speak to the pilot to obtain special permission. Surely the pilot would understand.
The pilot did not comply. He simply restated the policy.
David was not about to lose this precious mitzvah, or let the holy tefillin get lost like that, so, not knowing what else to do, he started screaming at the top of his lungs, “I am going to lose my tefillin.” The crew asked him to be quiet, but he refused to stop making a fuss – a rather loud fuss.
Finally, he was making such a ruckus and a tumult that the flight crew told him that they would let him off the plane, simply because he was a nuisance.
In fact, even though it would only take about 90 seconds to run out, grab his tefillin, and run back – they were not going to >wait for him. No matter. David was not about to lose his tefillin, >even if it caused him great inconvenience or cost his business a loss.
He left the plane, never to re-board.
This flight was United #175; the second plane to reach the WTC.
David’s devotion to a mitzvah saved his life.
The consequences of David’s actions do not end there.
Originally the terrorists wanted both towers struck simultaneously to maximize the explosive carnage. Later it was learned that due to this whole tumult, the takeoff was delayed, causing a space of 18 minutes between the striking of the two towers.
This delay made it possible for thousands more people to escape alive from both buildings. Literally thousands, if not tens of thousands, of lives were spared because one Jew would not forsake his beloved tefillin.