This is how it was presented in the email on the list, and it was the same details in the Hebrew version on the various forums....
The Israeli soldiers were going from house to house looking for terrorists the other night. Three times in the same night, at three different houses, a woman dressed all in black stopped them from entering.
She pleaded with them not to go in.
They listened to her and found out all three of the houses were rigged with tons of explosives. She saved a lot of our soldiers from dying.
No one knows who she was. She disappeared as quickly as she had appeared. One soldier asked who are you, and she said Rachel. Other soldiers heard her say this.
In the Sixth Day War, a similar incident happened with a very old man sitting by the side of the road. He appeared to many groups of soldiers in the same day, telling them don't go down that road, or they must go down this road. When the soldiers all got together and shared the story, they were astounded that they all saw the same old man, dressed the same way, but at different places during the war. (This was told to me by a man who fought in the Sixth Day War and experienced this miracle first hand).
I believe in miracles here on earth in the here-and-now. I think I have personally experienced them, but forget that. Just think of the wars of 1967, 1973, and Gaza--6,000 rockets fired with few deaths and injured (not to diminish the tragedy of the successful attacks). However, is this story pushing the blessing of miracles? Where was the woman in black during the holocaust?
ReplyDeletethats an awesome story. i love it!
ReplyDeletewho cares if its true or not... i will believe it is, and wonder about the awesomeness of the story.
The story probably originates from Lazerbrody, and he is unfortunately known in the past to fabricate stories. It's beautiful, but don't believe it.
ReplyDeleteHere is an example of a previous fabrication of his.
http://haemtza.blogspot.com/2008/04/folly-of-embellishment.html
B"H
ReplyDeleteAfter I survived the 6/2002 French Hill attack, I heard several stories which couldn't possibly be anything but miracles,...at least two involving tzitzith BTW.
I myself was right next to the blast, yet escaped with one piece of shrapnel {in a very well padded area} and a very minor {but pain in the neck} hearing loss.
I was instructed that I should certainly bench "sheasah li nes bamaqom hazeh" there.
If true, the incidents you recounted are fascinating.
what language do they say the woman in black was speaking? (If she was speaking hebrew, what proportion of fundamentalist muslim women in gaza speak hebrew?)
ReplyDeleteLet's not accuse R Brody of fabricating. He might just pass on stories he's heard. Did he say he personally verified the merkaz harav story?
ReplyDeleteHere is another blog describing Lazer Brody's hoax.
ReplyDeleteThe fact is that people who I know discounted the story, and Lazer never apologized or explained himself. His blog doesn't allow comments. Ask yourself if a doreish et emet acts like that.
Sorry, my attempts at HTML were not successful.
ReplyDeleteHere is a link to 'another blog':
http://hirhurim.blogspot.com/2008/04/another-e-mail-hoax.html
And here is a link to Lazer's post:
http://lazerbrody.typepad.com/lazer_beams/2009/01/the-land-of-miracles.html
Firstly, I'm the Yitz of Heichal HaNegina blog, not the other "yitz" who wrote above.
ReplyDeleteR. Lazer Brody did NOT fabricate anything, he may have passed on something he heard or read, that's all.
AS to the allowing or disallowing of comments, there were a flood of comments back in April when the Mercaz HaRav post went up, which have since all been deleted at Blog HaEmtza, who ALSO doesn't allow commenting [even tho he did then]. So much for your assumptions!
Even if it wasn't her, it is still a miracle that their life was saved.
ReplyDeleteImagine this, the Jewish people uniting in prayer and those prayers protecting us -
Obviously, there is going to be some causalties because it's a war. But the numbers 1300 gazans and only 13 Israelis is miraculous.
Also, I want to point out just for people to know, that if someone was given a name of a soldier to pray for, and the soldier got injured, the one who prayed shouldn't think that the prayer didn't work. Maybe the soldier might have been killed, but the prayer saved him and so he was only injured but will be okay
according to some accounts, she spoke Arabic, and according to other accounts, she spoke Hebrew. According to some accounts, she did not give her name, according to others, Rachel, according to others, Rachel Imeinu.
ReplyDeleteThis is not "confirmation." It is just another person believing this story, possibly with its various embellishments. That this person is prominent does nothing to confirm it, if it is an urban legend.
And it is not positive to get chizuk from sheker. See my post for an analysis of this.
KT,
Josh
Yitz of Heichal HaNegina wrote: "AS to the allowing or disallowing of comments, there were a flood of comments back in April when the Mercaz HaRav post went up, which have since all been deleted at Blog HaEmtza, who ALSO doesn't allow commenting [even tho he did then]. So much for your assumptions!"
ReplyDeleteYitz (I guess we have the same name), Rabbi Maryles at Haemtza does allow comments. And the comments from the post are still there. So I don't understand your point.
Also, I still am disturbed that the Lazer Beams blog post about Doron is still up, even though everyone on Hirhurim and Haemtza say it's false. I trust Jeffrey Woolf as mentioned here Can you explain this?