Miraculously Saved from a Rocket – and Came to the Kotel to Offer Thanks

The name of our nation, Yehudim – Jews, comes from a unique source. Our matriarch, Leah, called her fourth son Yehuda – Judah rooted in the Hebrew word for gratitude. Jews have always known how to express thanks to G-d for miracles, especially when saved from real danger. Once, when the Temple stood, there was a special sacrifice – Korban Toda – that people would offer in thanks and then eat together.
Today, without a Temple, many come here, to the Western Wall, to offer gratitude to G-d.
“We were about to cross to the other side of the road and a missile fell there”: Brother and sister injured on Simchat Torah came to express gratitude for their miracle at the Western Wall.
We were excited to accompany Itamar and Ori’ah Cohen, a brother and sister who were injured by a rocket from Gaza on the morning of Simchat Torah while they were on their way home after dancing at a synagogue in Netivot. The rocket landed right next to them, on the other side of the road, and they miraculously survived.
Itamar and Ori’ah came to the Western Wall Plaza to thank G-d for His kindness and for the miracles He performed for them. Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, Rabbi of the Western Wall and the Holy Sites, and the worshippers at the Western Wall Plaza, joined in prayers for their complete recovery and for the healing of the other wounded, as well as for the safe and speedy return of the captives and the missing.