Protected by a Prayer Book: A Mother's Miracle in Haifa

Odiya Revital Engel, a 47-year-old mother of two daughters, will never forget the miracle that saved her life three years ago. Though she has faced life-threatening situations more than once, five times in total, this last experience deeply transformed her outlook.

That day, she was running late to a meeting in Haifa and pushed her car to the edge of the speed limit. The female voice of her GPS guided her as she approached the city. But just at the entrance to Haifa, the road split, and suddenly Waze went silent. Odiya had never driven to Haifa alone and wasn’t sure which lane to take.

She glanced at the screen for just one second to check the map. But in that one second, everything changed. She lost control of the vehicle and hit a traffic island. “It was as if the steering wheel was snatched from my hands. I couldn’t see or feel anything. The car lifted into the air and flipped four times with me inside. I heard loud crashes and felt my body jolt violently.”

Although the whole crash lasted only a few seconds, for Odiya it felt like a lifetime. As the car turned over, images of her daughters flashed before her eyes. Having become religious 13 years earlier, she understood she might be moments away from her final breath. And as the car flipped, she cried out with all her strength, “Shema Yisrael, Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem Echad.”

At the exact moment she said the word “Echad” (One), the car stopped. She found herself upside down, her head hanging downward, her legs pointing up. “I couldn’t move. I didn’t know if I was alive or dead. I was in complete shock,” Odiya recalls. And then something incredible happened. A music disc she had recorded, which hadn’t worked in her car for two months, suddenly started playing. It picked up in the middle of a song she had written: “Save us, Hashem our God, and we will thank Your holy name.”

Before leaving home, Odiya had recited the Birkot HaShachar, the morning blessings from her siddur (prayer book), then placed it on the seat beside her. When the ambulance arrived and rescue workers began cutting open the wreckage to pull her out, the Arab paramedic was shocked.

“Ma’am,” he said, still in disbelief, “your book was under your head.”

And what condition was her head in?

It had been resting in the middle of crushed metal and broken glass. That same prayer book had somehow flown across the car and landed directly beneath her head. “The siddur was open, and it literally separated my head from the road. That’s why I didn’t die,” Odiya says with emotion that still fills her voice.

Despite the growing pain in her body, Odiya asked the paramedic to mark the page that was open and place the prayer book beside her on the stretcher. Two days later, after regaining strength, she opened the marked page herself. The first line her eyes fell on was: “For the miracles, and for the salvation, and for the mighty deeds, and for the victories, and for the wonders, and for the consolations that You performed for our ancestors in those days, at this time.”

At that moment, she understood just how great the miracle had been.

“I’ve lived through hard times and serious challenges,” she reflects. “Five times I stood at the edge of death. But each time, not only did Hashem save me, He was with me the entire way. He held my hand with the gentlest compassion, whispering, ‘I’m right here with you.’ That knowledge gives me the strength to turn my daily life into something meaningful.”

Today, Odiya Revital dedicates her life to inspiring others. Through musical hafrashat challah gatherings (ceremonies where a piece of dough is separated as a mitzvah), she shares her story and messages of faith. Her hope is that people who hear her will come away with one clear message:

“Life isn’t random. Every day you live has meaning.”