Rav Menachem Hendel, a Chabad shliach in Athens where a terror attack was thwarted by the Mossad, spoke to Kikar H’Shabbat on Wednesday about the frightening report.
“We heard about it on the news like everyone else,” he said. “We weren’t officially contacted. Even now – we haven’t been informed of anything. Baruch Hashem, Who watches over us – and we thank the authorities who protect us all the time.”
“Were you shocked? Were the members of the kehilla scared?
“We were definitely surprised. We have security all year round but this was definitely disturbing. We’re in contact with the authorities to further increase our security and b’ezras Hashem, we’ll have only good and happy things.”
Is there any concern that will affect your Pesach activities?
“We hope not. As of now, there haven’t been any cancellations for the pubic Seder we’re running. Of course, we’re making sure we have additional security. We have 2,300 kehilla members and we we’re taking care of everyone’s safety.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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4 Responses
I wonder what the “Olom haYeshiva” (aka Yeshiva World) thinks:
Are they required to bentch gomel or not?
I think not, because nothing actually happened. It was all stopped in advance. To trigger hagomel I would think you need an actual danger to have existed.
E.g. I knew several people who were supposed to be on the Pan Am flight that exploded over Lockerbie. I don’t believe they benched gomel for having been guided by hashgacha to change their travel plans.
Rav Shlomo Zalman Orbach ztz’l : If the bullet misses the head by a centimeter you don’t bench gomel, but you say nishmas. If the bullet touches an ankle you bench gomel….
Sugya, interesting. I think if there were an actual bullet fired at me, I would bench gomel even if it missed. But in this case the miracle was that there was no bullet, no gun, no incident at all, and in such a case there is surely no gomel.