"The Tefillin on the Burned Bus Remained Intact"

It was yet another terrible attack site that ZAKA member Dano Monkotovich arrived at in Bulgaria late last week, following the horrific attack on a bus of Israelis. He has been active in ZAKA for 20 years and says that each attack site is a different story. You never get used to the difficult sights, the terrible smell, and the gloomy feeling, but like in previous attacks, this time too he felt a small ray of light, following the discovery of a holy item that was not harmed at all.

"The tefillin were within my section - at such sites the entire area is divided into sections," says Monkotovich. "I and the volunteer Shlomi Vispish saw a tefillin cover with a scorched yarmulke next to it. The tefillin inside were unharmed and not even dirtied. They also did not get wet, despite the large amounts of water sprayed by the rescue forces to extinguish the fire on the bus. Even the straps remained intact. In every event, something brings us back to reality. Suddenly, amidst all the darkness, the discovery of the unharmed tefillin lit a small light in the heart. It was very moving."

The attack occurred on Wednesday, the 28th of Tammuz, in the afternoon. Monkotovich received a notification on the pager, and a few minutes later got a call from Mati Goldstein, commander of ZAKA's international unit, instructing him to prepare for a quick flight to Bulgaria on a private plane. The two had passports and equipment ready in the vehicle for emergencies like these, and they quickly headed to the airport. The ZAKA team consisted of five people, and they flew together with two Magen David Adom staff members.

Immediately upon landing, the team attended to the injured Israelis, as they are all trained paramedics, and later, when authorized by local authorities, they entered the attack site. "The injured were evacuated to hospitals, and we dealt with what remained," Monkotovich recounts. "We had to wait for the forensic investigators, and until then we couldn’t touch the bodies. They finished their work, and then we started evacuating the bodies, in full cooperation with the Bulgarian forces, who have their own laws. It was not easy to communicate with them since they didn’t quite understand our insistence on respecting the bodies of the deceased and collecting every piece of skin and tissue. They also didn't understand the importance of deciding which belongs to this victim and which to that one. We had some friction, but we are used to it from previous attacks abroad. In the morning, the second plane arrived with the rest of the delegation. We worked all night, and the second group relieved us."

Was this attack site different in some way from sites you've known in the past?"Yes, it was very quiet. Usually, there is a lot of chaos and confusion at attack sites. This time we were truly alone, without photographers, onlookers, and journalists. Even representatives of the authorities did not interfere too much. The local Chabad emissary helped us with the local procedures, provided us with food and more."

How do you return home after such an event?

"It’s hard. It’s hard to go home and see that everything's fine with you and everything continues. There are people whose world has been destroyed, and for you everything is fine. It's clear to us that Hashem protects us as emissaries of a mitzvah. Usually, at home I don’t talk about what I saw and what I didn’t. We talk about that among the ZAKA friends."

Didn't the difficulty make you consider leaving?

"Almost after every event I say this is it, I've contributed enough, seen enough, let's return to normal life. It’s really not normal to deal quite a bit with the dead and the casualties. But later, the events themselves give me strength to continue. I've learned to do it seriously, so I feel responsible to continue. But there definitely were moments when I thought of quitting. Your lifestyle is different from a normal person's. You can't go on trips with the family with a calm head, you always live with your finger on the pulse. But as mentioned, there are also very empowering moments, like the moment we found the tefillin, lifted them, and kissed them with excitement."