Second Chances for Life

Photos Elchanan Kotler, Flash90, Motti Simon

Millions of people around the world saw the horrific early-morning Erev Pesach security footage: A white car plows into a group of bochurim on a streetcorner and sends them flying through the air and landing with a thud meters away, while two terrorists emerge from the vehicle and aim a submachine gun toward their prey… until the weapon jams and they flee into one of the nearby buildings, where they’re eventually hunted down by an Israeli SWAT team.

Now, ahead of Pesach Sheini, the “day of second chances,” Mendy, Yehuda, and Yoeli Fisch, three Breslov chassidic brothers who were standing on the corner of Techeles Mordechai Street and somehow survived the ramming, are making a personal accounting of their merits and sharing the immense gratitude in the Heavenly Hashgachah and compassion that placed them squarely in the center of a pre-Pesach miracle.

It was around 7:50 a.m., and the early risers had already davened and were making their way to the large dumpster that the municipality placed across from the Nachalas Akiva shul on Rechov Techeles Mordechai (which shares the ground-level entrance of the Ganei Geula residential complex) to burn the neighborhood chometz. Others were hurrying off to Shacharis or to siyumim to exempt firstborns from fasting.

Nachalas Akiva, with its many nooks and rooms, actually serves as the neighborhood shtiblach in addition to its main shul, drawing crowds at all hours of the day. On Erev Pesach, most people are in a hurry to finish davening, and at this early hour, the shtiblach inside were full.