A Miracle within Miracles during Z’man Simchateinu on Flydubai Flight 1073
Yesterday, September 30th, was Chol Hamoed Sukkot. The 5th day of Sukkot 5787.
We were all sitting in our fragile sukkot, as HaShem demonstrated to 174 Israeli passengers and acheinu bnai yisrael exactly what a sukkah really is.
While we watched in horror the day-after news coverage this morning on TV, one of the passengers and her two daughters were interviewed and asked questions about their harrowing experience on Flydubai Flight #1073.
I was truly inspired and moved when she reported that as the plane was dropping out of the sky, she recited tehillim. She referred to the entire nightmare as a “miracle wrapped up in miracles.”
A Matana During Zman Simchaseinu
On Sukkot we leave our strong houses made from concrete, our locked doors, our Iron Dome, and our El Al security in order enter into a flimsy hut with a roof of leaves. Why? In order to remember that we were never protected by the walls. We were always protected by the Ananei HaKavod – the Clouds of Glory.
Yesterday, HaShem ripped away every illusion of protection in less than 30 seconds.
We understood that a modern 737 MAX 8 is supposed to be the “strongest house” with triple-redundant hydraulics. A locked cockpit door that no one can break through since 9/11 and two professional pilots. Autopilot. Everything was engineered to be totally safe.
In one second, all of it failed. The co-pilot became the terrorist. The door that was meant to keep terrorists OUT kept the rescuers OUT. The plane that was meant to be stable plummeted 14,000 feet in 30 seconds and lost its rudder.
The “house” fell apart.
And what was left? Only HaShem. The exact same thing that was left for our ancestors when sojourning through the midbar.
The Chovos Halevavos writes that Sukkot teaches us “ein od milvado“ in the physical world. Yesterday at 34,000 feet over Saudi Arabia, 174 Jews learned it and experienced it in their bodies.
The Sukkah in the Sky
The Sukkah didn’t break or blow away in the storm. The plane should have broken apart when it exceeded 100 knots in a nosedive. The fact that the wings stayed intact and only the rudder tore off is not aerodynamics. It’s Ananei HaKavod.
As we learn, the Lulav and Esrog represent achdut, On Sukkot we hold the Arba Minim together, representing different Jews bound as one. Yesterday, secular and religious, Sefardi, Ashkenazi, and Israelis who didn’t know each other, tied a terrorist’s hands with headphone wires together. No one said “let someone else do it.”
Landing in Saudi Arabia was beyond surrealistic.
Just try to imagine celebrating Simchas Beis HaShoeva in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
On Sukkot, Jews were dancing after being saved from death, in the middle of a Muslim country that 5 years ago that we couldn’t even fly over. If the water pouring celebration in the desert is not a Sukkot neis, than what is?
As one passenger was heard when arriving at Ben Gurion airport , “we didn’t think we will make it but thank God we are in Israel. We are back home!”
The Sfas Emes says that Sukkot comes right after Yom Kippur to tell us that after we were sealed for life on Yom Kippur, we now live that life with joy.
On Yom Kippur we all asked for “chaim” (life). On Sukkot, HaShem showed 174 people what that chaim actually looks like when it is given a second time as a matana.
This was indeed a matana – a gift of chaim during Zman Simchateinu, the time of our joy.
So as the passengers come home and sit in their sukkot tonight, they say with a completely different heart Ufros Aleinu Sukkat Shlomecha. – Spread over us Your Sukkah of Peace.
Yesterday, 174 Jews saw that Sukkah with their own eyes as they were close to death, at 16,600 feet.
And now all of acheinu bnai yisrael and Klal Yisrael see it as well.
It makes no difference if one is religious, secular or marginally affiliated, HaShem loves and protects us all the same.
As we prepare for Shemini Azeret and Simchat Torah, may HaShem bless us with continued safety, bracha and excellent health
Chag Sameach, Bsorot Tovot and Moadim lSimcha.
