The great Hasidic leaders explain that the very name of the month of Kislev alludes to the fact that miracles happen during this time. Kis means covered and Lev is the Gematria of 36 – referring to the revealing of the holy light that Adam had experienced for the first 36 hours of human life.
The Mesivta of Greater Los Angeles, located in Calabasas, California, just experienced such a miracle on Rosh Chodesh Kislev.
Unfortunately, the state of California is inundated by massive wildfires and high winds which have already claimed 60 lives. The Yeshiva in Calabasas, however, seemed to be safe, but as a precaution it was evacuated.
The Yeshiva was temporarily relocated to Bais Medrash Adas Torah, in downtown Los Angeles on West Pico Blvd.
While the Yeshiva was in Galus, so to speak, for no explicable reason, an emergency vehicle had pulled up to the Yeshiva on Friday morning. Later inquiries revealed that even the fire department did not know why the paramedic and the emergency vehicle were there.
While the emergency vehicle was parked near the Yeshiva, the heavy winds blew a fire ember onto the roof of the Yeshiva trailer. The roof ignited instantly and burst into flames.
The alert paramedic immediately radioed the fire department. A fire truck arrived and extinguished the fire within minutes. This is an almost impossible response time. The Yeshiva dormitory is situated within two yards of the trailer.
Had the emergency vehicle not been there at that moment, both the Yeshiva and the dormitory would have been set on fire.
[DEADLIEST IN HISTORY: N. California Fire Death Toll Rises to 56, Additional 300 Unaccounted For]
In the enclosed photos, directly behind the Yeshiva building, the ground is charred black. The fires had come to a complete stop right at the Yeshiva property line.
The fire embers also hit the garbage bin behind the dining room building. The heat was so intense that the garbage can melted. Flames did char the building, but it did not catch on fire.
The civil servants and surrounding neighbors all expressed wonder as to how the Yeshiva building could possibly have been spared.
The Mesivta is a Yeshiva High School with dormitory facilities, in its 8.2 acre campus. The Yeshiva has approximately 60 Bochrim, and is under the leadership of Rav Shlomo Gottesman.
Public letter from the Yeshiva: [Additional photos below]
We are overwhelmed with shevach v’hodaya to the Ribono shel Olam for
sparing all the structures our talmidim use. We witnessed tremendous
Hashgocha Protis.
We are happy to announce that, bez”H, we will be returning to our
campus this Sunday morning, November 18. Shacharis is at 7:50 am.
Please schedule car pools accordingly. We want to remind everyone to
bring fresh linens and towels.
Mesivta would like to express its tremendous appreciation to Rabbi
Dovid Revah & Adas Torah for hosting the Yeshiva during this week of
our ‘evacuation’. Thank you again for all those who made sure
meals were provided and a special Yasher Koach to our Hanhala and
bochurim for adapting to the situation so smoothly.
B”H we are happy to report that the power has been on now for almost
2 days uninterrupted, our custodians has been cleaning the campus to
remove the trash left behind during the evacuation, any accumulated
ash and debris, and prepare the campus for our return.
The air quality continues to improve and we’ve noticed an increasing
number of bicyclists along Mureau Rd.
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20 Responses
If at the same time, you have 460 rockets falling on Eretz Yisroel, then i don’t see the miracle !!!!!!!!!!! Has Hashem fallen in love with Calabasas and forgotten Eretz Yisroel !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Moderators Note: 460 rockets fell on Eretz Yisroel and not one Jew was killed. Get a grip.
In the zchus of the chashove Rosh Yeshiva and lbc’l in the zchus of his late father R’ Menachem z’l who raised, taught and cared for thousands of talmidim, there should be no more losses or damage to Yeshiva property.
Sorry, sorry, sorry, I wouldn’t say this is a miracle at all. Enough yidden are suffering in the world and would hope for hashems help and at tthe moment we have no reply from Hashem. We are not great enough to know what is a miracle and what is not. IT MAY JUST HAVE PURE LUCK 🙂
Is this miracle or the miracle of last year Chanukah:- The release of Shalom Rubashkin by the huge Tzaddik President Donald Trump a larger miracle?
“Yeshiva”, yes we are in galus and there is certainly enough choshech and hester panim to indeed constantly remind us that we are in galus. But the way out of galus is to recognize Yad Hashem when it is in front of us, not to succumb to Amalek and see “pure luck”-! (Perhaps its time to go back to Yeshiva, “Yeshiva”-!!)
To yeshiva:
Sorry, sorry, I read about 15 different stories on how different families managed to quickly get out of their apartment right before the rocket hit. Many miracles happened in Eretz Yisroel during those few days.
You should be asking your Rav this question, instead of Mr. Internet.
“LUCK” is APIKOSUS. We believe in hashgocha protis which is clearly seen in this story.
@yeshiva to quote you “At the moment we have no response from Hashem”
And 2nd “We are not great enough to know what a miracle is and what isn’t”
Exactly. We are not great enough to know weather it is a miracle or not, nor are we great enough to know why some jews have tzaros and why others don’t, the same way a child doesn’t understand why he has to swallow nasty medicine, his parents understand that the kid needs this medication regardless if the kid likes it or not, because it’s for the good of the kid.
What we do know is, HASHEM does everything, not some things, EVERYTHING for the good. Now if he does everything for the good, so then yes sometimes it’s hard to swallow the medicine, but ultimately it’s for the good.That’s where Emuna plays it’s part. So before saying things like “We have no reply from Hashem at the moment”, think…(this should resonate in ur head every day) “Hashem is in complete control of everything, at every moment of the day, in every part of the world, of every single human being and even to every single last ant crawling on the floor”.
@yeshiva – Every breath we take is a miracle, not just “pure luck”. When we live life with gratitude, we will be zoche to see more open miracles.
You win, I guess. Straight out of this “Yeshiva” guy’s mouth, I guess to him the world is just hefker, things happen just randomly…. (ח”ו)… Welcome to the club (apikorsim…atheists…)
Us, (Torah keeping Jews) know that even if HaShem chooses to take a stance of “turning” his face from one individual, in no way lessens our Emunah of His direct involvement in each and every minute detail of every creature, every tiny occurrence in our world down here. As well as in any of the upper worlds…
@yeshiva. ‘Hashem’ in the second sentence should be capitalized. Also there should be an appostriphee between the m and the s at the end of the word. Also the word ‘the’ in the same sentence is misspeled. Also u forgot to put a period after the smiley face of the final sentence.
When they mention”golus” (galut in my language) they’re completely correct. They shouldn’t be in the “holy” city of Calabasas. They should be moving the entire yeshiva to Eretz Yisrael. Reb Shlomo Gottesman, my former student, should know better that Hashem saved him this time because he may be telling him to get out of there before it’s too late and the next fire (they come back all the time probably because He doesn’t like California). Reb Shlomo should learn from his father and make aliya. What a kiddush Hashem it would be if he would take all his students and move en masse to Israel.
To Kovna ruv: You spelled this wrong. It’s not “appostriphee”. It’s “apostrophe”.
@1simcha1: I think you meant ‘you spelled appostriphee wrong’. ‘You spelled this wrong’ is not a sentence, as it does not have a preposition. You need to work on your grammer.
Kovna Rov, you misspelled misspeled
Yeshiva, Hakb”H judges countries, towns, neighborhoods, and many Billions of individuals. He also doesn’t let you or most of the rest of us in on why he does what He does. All we know is, in the words of Dovid Hamelech,
מאת ה’ היתה זאת
And we are all responsible for one another. When a sefer torah is dropped in a shul, or someone passes away from an illness, l”a, it is incumbent upon all others in the shul kehilla as well as the person’s family, to look into their deeds and if they find something to correct, then work on it. And if you find yourself beyond reproach, then increase your Torah and Chessed. That is besides working to pass the test of keeping your emunah strong. And believing as part of that, how you are only here because Hashem is thinking about you every split second.
Yeshiva, you sound very jaded by life. I am very sorry if that is true. But, listen, if you believe in כחי ועצם ידי then Hashem is perfectly willing to sit back and let you deal with life without His help. If you believe in Luck, Hashem will remove his hashgacha from your picture, and sadly, your life will be run by luck.
הרוצה לטהר מסעיין אותו
Things happen to everyone. Sometimes there us a gezeira beyond all normal reality and a shul or yeshiva burns down, with all its members locked inside….we know our frightening chapters in galus history. But for yourself, consider asking hakb”H to partner up with you in your life.
This Yeshiva, of course they were zoche. Hashem did a miracle. Study up on the definition.
One more: any readers who recall a very eerily similar miracle that saved the Chabad Day School in San Diego many years back, will know how it actually fostered much emunah amongst the children and their families.
i WOULD LIKE TO THANK EVERYONE FOR THE COMMENTS AND REPLIES YOU HAVE LEFT ME. iT HAS HELPED ME ALOT TO THINK OVER AND HAVE MORE EMUNAH IN HASHEM. AT THE MOMENT I AM GOING THROUGH A VERY VERY DIFFICULT PERIOD IN MY FAMILY LIFE WHICH LEAVES ME DESPERATE FROM TIME TO TIME. THANK YOU ALL AGAIN FOR YOUR WORDS OF ENCOURAGMENT. I WILL TYRY TO HAVE MORE EMUNAH IN HASHEM
חניפה, Mr.147
the miracle that occurred at SAR that saved lives not material items was not reported.