The famed Metzuda Winery, located in Givat Ye’arim, one of the communities evacuated during the massive fire outside Jerusalem that began on Sunday, went up in flames and was completely destroyed.

The fire happened at the worst possible time, during the grape harvest season, when its owner, Reb Eli Bash, was about to fill 30,000 new wine bottles.

“The winery is gone, it’s dust and ashes,” Bash told Army Radio on Monday morning. “Nothing is left, about 150 barrels were burned. On Thursday, 30,000 new bottles arrived that were supposed to be filled yesterday. It happened in the worst way it could have.”

Bash told Kikar H’Shabbat that he and his employees were working in the winery when they noticed the sky darkening. They continued working but 15 minutes later, the electricity went out. They went outside and they saw the flames beginning to approach.

“When we realized what was happening, we got in our cars and simply fled for our lives,” he said. Twenty minutes after they fled, the winery went up in flames and wine bottles began exploding.

כואב הלב! יקב ׳המצודה׳ בגבעת יערים בבעלות חרדית עלה באש ונשרף כליל היום בשריפה הגדולה בהרי ירושלים pic.twitter.com/xEH8jXlnj6

— ישראל כהן (@Israelcohen911) August 15, 2021

Bash said that the winery was his whole world. “It’s a huge loss of NIS 7-8 million. But I believe that everything is from Hashem. We’ll utilize all the damage Hashem decreed on the winery and turn it into good. Several residents of the area told me that it was due to the winery that the fire stopped and didn’t burn down the homes on the yishuv – that thought provides me chizzuk.”

Right after Bash realized that he lost everything, he said to those around him: “A person is obligated to bless on the bad just like he blesses for the good.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)