It is nothing less than a tragedy neighbors and friends explain, the fire in a vehicle on Sunday, 9 Cheshvan, that resulted in the death of a toddler who rescue workers and family members were unable to extricate in time as the flames engulfed the vehicle in Yishuv Beit Arif.
The mother looked on in horror, eventually passing out and requiring medical attention as the responders frantically tried to get the child, Hila Tzalach A”H out of the burning vehicle, but they were unsuccessful.
The family arrived home at about 16:30 and began heading into the house in the community near Shoham after parking in the driveway. The parents, well-known figures in the community, entered their home with some of their six children, while Hila (3) and Benny (8) remained in the Mazda MPV in the driveway.
A neighbor driving a tractor passed the home, and noticed the car was on fire. He ran to the car as the parents who heard the screams came out of the house, seeing the flames engulfing the vehicle. They got Benny out as a neighbor was dousing it with water in a desperate attempt to get Hila out of the car as well.
The tractor driver moved the car further from the home, afraid it would catch fire or the gas balloons outside would explode. This was done as the flames continued to spread. The parents then shouted to hm that Hila was still inside, which he apparently did not realize.
She was extricated with burns over her entire body, and she died a few minutes later. Firefighters report she was dead by the time she was extricated from the inferno.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
What is happening? A 9 year old in Monsey is struck and killed by a vehicle yesterday, 2 bachurim from Waterbury Yeshiva are killed when their vehicle overturns early this morning, and now a 3 year old toddler burns to death in her family vehicle in their own driveway.
According to Rambam (Hil. Taanis 1:1-3), it is a positive commandment of the Torah for every individual to cry out and search his ways at a time of national calamity, for G-d visits calamities upon Israel to inspire each Jew to repent for his misdeeds. If someone fails to recognize that tragedies occur through an act of G-d rather [than] through happenstance, he is considered cruel, because he will not be motivated to improve his behavior. as a result, G-d will beset Israel with more troubles, until all are motivated to change their ways.
I think that we need to find an area that we as a community are lacking and make 120% effort to improve to show the RBS”O that we heeding His messages (via the recent unimaginable tragedies) seriously. I think that we can all stand improvement in the area of adherence to Hilchos Shabbos. Maybe we could, as a small group here on the CR, take upon ourselves to learn 2 Halachos about Shmiras Shabbos daily and start a chain reaction for Teshuva in this area. I remember hearing that the Chafetz Chaim ZT”L wrote that it is almost impossible not to violate Hilchos Shabbos if we don’t seriously study the Halachos. Could we agree to take one Sefer, perhaps “The Shabbos Home” by Rabbi Simcha Bunim Cohen (Artscroll) and learn every day 2 Halachos without fail? If you agree, please ask others to respond to this CR thread and we can get this Teshuva movement going strong.
how about the way we act in shul during davening. try to imagine oulling out a siddur while a rebbe is saying a shiur and think how it looks when we act like big masmidim during tefila not to mention the talking and noise( at times when it is forbidden to talk) tosfos yomtov attributed many of klal yisroels tragdies to this specific issue. would it be so terrible to improve in this area EVEN if it is not the reason for these specific tragedies