"Ki eshmira Shabbos, K-ail yishmeraini..." - Zemiros L'Shabbos.
"When I safeguard the Sabbath, G-d will safeguard me..." - Sabbath
Liturgy
There is an old Jewish saying, "More than the Jews keep Shabbos, Shabbos keeps
the Jews." When Jews are faithful to G-d's commandments everyone merits
special Divine protection, as the two following true stories illustrate:
Shalom Dadoun began flying for United Airlines in 1986. Shortly thereafter, he
married a sweet pious girl, whose good influence led him to be a more
observant Jew. Eventually, Shalom gave up flying on Shabbos.
This however is easier said than done. United pilots sign up for their flight
assignments one month at a time in advance. When pilots of Shalom's seniority
level sign up to fly the Boeing 767, they are assigned a month worth of
flights and have no say in the particular flight dates. It would be possible
to be forced into flying on Shabbos.
If a pilot chooses to fly the Airbus, he would have control of his actual
flight dates for the upcoming month. The 767 flights paid much more, but
Shalom would not put himself in a position where he might be compelled to work
on Shabbos, so he always chose the Airbus.
One of Shalom's favorite flights was the Boston-LA flight, which had always
been flown using the Airbus. In September, 2001, that route was given to the
767 fleet. Since Shalom would not fly the 767, due to the possible Shabbos
consequences he could not fly the Boston-LA route which he usually flew.
Had it not been for the inspiration of his virtuous wife and his Shabbos
No-Fly policy, he would have been on the Boston-LA flight on September 11,
2001. United Flight 175. The flight that crashed.
-----
David Miller* [*not his real name], a pious observant Jew was at Logan Airport
getting ready to board United Flight 175. He was going to LA on an important
business trip and had to make this flight. A lot depended on it. He boarded
the plane, watched the doors close, and sat down.
Suddenly he remembered that he left his tefillin (ritual boxes with straps
worn by Jewish men in prayer) in the terminal boarding area. He politely asked
the stewardess if he could go back and retrieve his tefillin, which were
sitting just a few feet from the gate.
She told him that once the doors of the plane closed, no one was allowed off
the plane. Not about to take this sitting down, he asked if he could speak to
the pilot to obtain special permission. Surely the pilot would understand. The
pilot did not comply. He simply restated the policy.
David was not about to lose this precious mitzvah, or let the holy tefillin
get lost like that, so, not knowing what else to do, he started screaming at
the top of his lungs, "I am going to lose my tefillin." The crew asked him to
be quiet, but he refused to stop making a fuss - a rather loud fuss.
Finally, he was making such a ruckus and a tumult that the flight crew told
him that they would let him off the plane, simply because he was a nuisance.
In fact, even though it would only take about 90 seconds to run out, grab his
tefillin, and run back - they were not going to wait for him.
No matter. David was not about to lose his tefillin, even if it caused him
great inconvenience or cost his business a loss. He left the plane, never to
reboard.
This flight was United #175. The second plane to reach the WTC. David's
devotion to a mitzvah saved his life.
The consequences of David's actions do not end there. Originally the
terrorists wanted both towers struck simultaneously to maximize the
explosive carnage. Later it was learned that due to this whole tumult, the
takeoff was delayed, causing a space of 18 minutes between the striking of the
two towers. This delay made it possible for thousands more people to escape
alive from both buildings.
Literally thousands, if not tens of thousands, of lives were spared because
one Jew would not forsake his beloved tefillin. [The foregoing true stories
are documented in "Even in the Darkest Moments" by Zeev Breier.]