Honoring His Father Saved His Life: A Lag b'Omer Miracle

The Mitzvah That Changed Everything

Moshe Walkin was an American student studying at Mir Yeshivah in Jerusalem. It was a few weeks after Pesach and he and his friends were making plans to travel up to Meron for Lag b'Omer, the yahrtzeit of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, and daven at his tomb.

Around a week beforehand, Moshe called his father, Rabbi Aharon Walkin, in Lakewood and told him that his friend Dovi Steinmetz had received several coveted tickets for the bonfire lighting ceremony in Meron and had given him one. They planned to go up to Meron early in the evening, and after the prayers and celebrations, continue on to Tzfat to spend Shabbat there.

A Change of Plan

Rabbi Aharon agreed that it sounded like a wonderful plan, and then added that he himself was planning on traveling to Eretz Yisrael for Lag b'Omer, firstly to visit his own father, who lived in Jerusalem, and then to head to Meron as well. "But I won't be able to leave Jerusalem until later in the evening," he added. "I want to go to your grandfather's Torah class first. Why don't you come too, and then we'll travel up north together?"

Moshe frowned. He had been really looking forward to the lighting ceremony, especially as he'd never seen it before. He and his friends had already made painstaking arrangements. But this was his father asking... Moshe made up his mind. He would do as his father asked and travel up later, together with him.

'This Is What Happened...'

"This is what happened," recounts Rabbi Aharon. "I arrived in Eretz Yisrael on the afternoon before Lag b'Omer, and my son Moshe was waiting for me at the airport. We traveled together to my father, in Jerusalem, and attended the Torah class he gave early that evening. It was around nine o'clock by the time we set out for Meron.

"We made the trip in around four hours, and were just anticipating our arrival when... a police roadblock loomed up ahead. I rolled down the car window and asked what was going on.

"'You haven't heard?' the police officer said. 'There's been a terrible disaster in Meron. The entire area is cordoned off.'"

Protected by a Mitzvah

"I was terribly disappointed," Rabbi Aharon continues. "I had finally arrived in Eretz Yisrael after years of not being able to visit, and was already so close to Meron, but now I wouldn't be able to recite even a single chapter of Psalms at the holy tomb. Moshe was also very disappointed, but we had no choice but to turn around and return to Jerusalem, reminding ourselves that everything happens for the best."

That was Thursday night, and it was not until Friday morning that Moshe found out the terrible news: his close friend Dov Steinmetz, along with another good friend Yosef Yitzchak Kohn, had both lost their lives in the dreadful tragedy.

'I Thought I Was Doing It for My Father'

Moshe was shell-shocked. He would have been at Dovi's side... the two of them had been almost inseparable. He would have been at Dovi's side if he hadn't chosen to honor his father instead and travel up to Meron a few hours, just a few hours later.

"I thought I was making a sacrifice for my father," Moshe says, "but I sacrificed nothing and gained my very life. I witnessed firsthand the fulfillment of the Torah's promise: 'Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long.'"