A Whisper from Above: The Electrician Who Saved Our Son

"A miracle happened to us," says Avraham Dahan, a resident of Afula, his voice full of emotion. "My son Elkana, who just celebrated his chalakah (a traditional first haircut ceremony at age three), might not have been with us today."

He continues, with deep sincerity: "Like many people, I had gotten used to taking life for granted. I never used to call things 'miracles.' But this time it was real. A miracle you can touch. I can’t stop thanking Hashem."

And so, he shares his story, his voice trembling with awe and gratitude.

From Celebration to Chaos

It all began on a Wednesday night. "We were on our way to celebrate our son Ilai’s Bar Mitzvah at the Kotel (Western Wall)," Avraham explains. "We rented a large vacation home in Beit Shemesh to stay the night with our extended family. The plan was to wake up early and go straight to the Kotel."

Everything went smoothly at first. They arrived at the rental, a comfortable, private estate and found everything they were promised. "We celebrated all night," Avraham recalls. "But since we stayed up late, we also overslept which was not great, because we wanted to reach the Kotel early."

So they kicked into gear. "We divided up the tasks. My wife got the kids dressed, I made sandwiches, my sister-in-law had her job, my father-in-law had his. Everyone was running around, busy. The pressure was high."

In the middle of all that, no one noticed little Elkana just three years old slipping quietly outside. “He had a starring role in the celebration,” Avraham says fondly. “The next day was his birthday, and we planned to celebrate his chalakah at the Kotel.”

But none of them imagined what would happen next.

A Sudden Boom, A Stranger at the Door

While the family rushed around, no one realized Elkana was gone. "Then, while I was making sandwiches in the kitchen, we suddenly heard a loud 'boom.' We didn’t understand what it was, but something in us knew something was wrong. We all dropped what we were doing and ran outside."

What they saw stopped them cold.

"A stranger was standing there, holding Elkana completely soaked, dripping with water," Avraham recalls, his voice still shaking.

Elkana had wandered out and jumped straight into the pool, unnoticed. This man who was a total stranger had pulled him out in the nick of time. “At first, I felt like my heart stopped,” Avraham says. “But when I saw Elkana crying, I knew thank Hashem that the worst hadn’t happened.”

The family was in shock. “For minutes, none of us could speak. The man sat shaking. We were all frozen. Eventually, after he had a drink and calmed down a bit, we thanked him and asked the big question: How did you know to come in at that exact moment?”

A Nudge From the Heart

Avraham reminds us: this wasn’t an open property. It was a secluded estate. “Since we’d arrived, no one else had come in. The man told us something incredible. He’s an electrician, and he was actually on his way to another job, a few houses down. But when he passed by our home, something tugged at him. In his own words: ‘Something in my heart told me to go inside.’”

That’s exactly what he did. He opened the door and saw Elkana mid-air, about to fall into the water. "He told us: ‘I never walk into homes where I know people are staying. I just don’t do that. But something in my heart told me to go in.’”

The timing was everything. “If he had come a second later, Elkana would have already disappeared under the water. If he had come earlier, he wouldn’t have seen anything yet. He walked in at the exact, critical moment sent from Shamayim (Heaven) to save our son.”

Avraham pauses, his voice thick with emotion. "Afterwards, I spoke with several tzaddikim (righteous rabbis), and they all told me that this was a visit from Eliyahu HaNavi (Elijah the Prophet)."

Gratitude Beyond Words

So what happened with the Bar Mitzvah? The Dahan family reached the Kotel around one in the afternoon much later than planned. “But the prayer was unforgettable,” Avraham says. “We cried from the depths of our hearts. We thanked Hashem for giving our son back to us, for letting us be together as a complete family.”

The next day, they traveled to the kever (burial place) of Rabbi Meir Baal HaNes in Tiberias, to thank Hashem and celebrate Elkana’s chalakah there.

Avraham ends his story with heartfelt words: “The feeling that remains with us is crystal clear, Hashem is King. Only He could have saved Elkana in those terrifying seconds. No one else. Even if our mouths were filled with song like the sea, we could never thank Him enough…”