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Miracle at 35 Miles Per Hour — How You Can Save a Life
A Torah scroll. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
I was driving from an event, late for Minyan. “If I just speed a little bit, I might make half of it.” My amazing wife was on the phone, trying to locate a Shul along my route where I could make it, but everything was saying I’d be late.
“It’s for a Mitzvah. All I have to do is speed up a little and I can beat the Waze ETA.”
In the heat of the moment, I had a decision to make. Drive a little faster and make it. Or drive the speed limit and miss an opportunity I can never get back.
And in that instant, the question I’ve been working on popped into my mind:
“What does Hashem want from me, at this moment?”
And the answer was clear. “Dina dMalchusa Dina” — “The law of the land (MUST BE KEPT AS SERIOUSLY) as the Law of Hashem.” (Bava Basra 54b, Teshuvos Chasam Sofer Yoreh Deah 314, Teshuvos Igros Moshe 2:29).
Driving safe is the Mitzvah I didn’t want to do, but needed to.
Thoughts of a recent WhatsApp chat group I’m a part of flashed through my mind. People warning and behooving and begging each other to be more careful, not to text while driving, not to race down residential neighborhoods, not to take corners too fast. Children have been hit. Lives have been lost. All from well-meaning, good people … doing the wrong thing.
I gritted my teeth and purposely slowed down. The ETA clicked another minute later. “At this point, would I even make it for Shkiayah?”
My wife hung up the phone. I began saying Tehillim (Psalms) and proceeded to do that which is even more holy than saying Tehilliim. I drove within the speed limit.
And then the miracle started to happen.
Green lights opening up.
Waze clicking back a minute, then two.
I pulled into the synagogue parking lot, with 120 seconds to spare. But I wasn’t the only one late. The lot was jammed packed.
“Maybe I can just double park by that hydrant and turn my blinkers on? Or just take the disabled spot, if only for a few minutes?”
“What does Hashem want from me in this moment?”
I drove past both openings and came to the end of the parking lot. And as the clock ticked to 60 seconds left, one solitary car pulled out … in front of me.
I took the spot.
Made it inside the Shul.
And not just davened with a Minyan. But davened with two.
And saw a friend (Yishai H) who spoke with me about the Tzemach Tzedek and the Rebbe. And wished Mazal Tov to a Chattan who just got married. And answered Borchu three times.
But none of that was as holy as driving within the speed limit.
For prayer is not what you say, but how you live your life.
And driving within the speed limit, saves lives.
“…and for Your miracles which happen each and every day, with us.”
Levi Y. Welton is a rabbi, stand-up comedian, and Lubavitcher Chossid. He can be reached at rabbiwelton@gmail.com
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Lindsey Graham urges Israel not to strike Iranian oil depots even as he says he helped make war happen
(JTA) — Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has called on Israel to rein in its attacks on Iranian oil infrastructure, marking a rare note of caution from a Republican lawmaker who has said he helped push the United States to join Israel in waging war against Iran.
In a post on X on Sunday, Graham praised Israel for its role in the war before adding that “there will be a day soon that the Iranian people will be in charge of their own fate, not the murderous ayatollah’s regime.”
“In that regard, please be cautious about what targets you select,” continued Graham. “Our goal is to liberate the Iranian people in a fashion that does not cripple their chance to start a new and better life when this regime collapses. The oil economy of Iran will be essential to that endeavor.”
Graham’s post linked to an Axios article that reported that the United States was alarmed by Israeli strikes over the weekend that targeted 30 Iranian fuel depots. On Monday, U.S. gas prices rose to their highest levels since 2024.
The warning from Graham, an ally of President Donald Trump and staunch supporter of Israel, comes days after the Republican hawk told the Wall Street Journal that he had played a key role in urging Trump to strike Iran.
Prior to the joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran, Graham made several trips to Israel where he met with members of the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, as well as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu whom he said he coached on how to lobby Trump to strike Iran.
“They’ll tell me things our own government won’t tell me,” Graham told the newspaper.
On Monday, Graham also directed his criticism at Saudi Arabia’s decision to stay on the sidelines of the campaign against Iran.
“It is my understanding the Kingdom refuses to use their capable military as a part of an effort to end the barbaric and terrorist Iranian regime who has terrorized the region and killed 7 Americans,” wrote Graham in a post on X Monday. “Question – why should America do a defense agreement with a country like the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that is unwilling to join a fight of mutual interest?”
The post Lindsey Graham urges Israel not to strike Iranian oil depots even as he says he helped make war happen appeared first on The Forward.
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Belgian officials investigating synagogue explosion as possible act of terrorism
(JTA) — Belgian officials are investigating an explosion in front of a synagogue in Liège early Monday as a possible act of terrorism.
The explosion, which took place at 4 a.m., damaged the door of the historic neo-Romanesque synagogue and blew out the windows of multiple buildings across the street. No injuries were reported.
A range of Belgian politicians, including the prime minister and the mayor of Liège, characterized the explosion as act of antisemitism.
“Antisemitism is an attack on our values and our society, and we must fight it unequivocally,” Prime Minister Bart de Wever said in a statement. “We stand in solidarity with the Jewish community in Liege and across the country.”
The explosion comes amid a surge of concern about possible attacks by agents associated with the Iranian regime, against which the United States and Israel launched a war last week. Iran has a long record of supporting attacks on Jewish targets abroad, including two bombings in the 1990s in Argentina that killed more than 100 people at the Israeli embassy and a Jewish community center. Now, with Iran being pummeled at home, watchdogs are warning that it might lash out through its Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force, responsible for attacks abroad.
Azerbaijan said Friday that it had foiled multiple terror attacks planned by Iranian agents on Jewish sites. In London, four men were arrested last week for allegedly spying on the Jewish community for Iran, with the intent of planning attacks against the community. And a string of shootings at synagogues in Toronto has ignited concern in Canada, too.
Iranian agents have taken aim at non-Jewish targets, too. On Friday, a Pakistani man who prosecutors said had been directed by Iran’s IRGC was convicted of plotting to assassinate President Donald Trump.
The attack in Liège, in the primarily French-speaking Wallonia province, comes amid a range of recent developments that have unsettled Belgian Jews, who number approximately 30,000. They include antisemitic carnival caricatures in the city of Aalst; a ban on ritual slaughter preventing the local production of kosher meat; and an ongoing row between U.S. and Belgian officials over Jewish circumcision practices. The attack also follows a 2014 shooting in which a gunman associated with the Islamic State, a rival to Iran’s Islamic Republic, shot four people to death at the Jewish Museum in Brussels.
A spokesperson for the Liège police described the effects to the area as “only material damage” to the 1899 building. Rabbi Joshua Nejman told local media that he was hoping that security footage would reveal the perpetrator.
“I’m going to try to calm my heart, because it is beating faster and faster this morning,” said Nejman, who said he had been at the synagogue for 25 years.
“Liege is home to a very small but vibrant Jewish community where I personally grew up,” Eitan Bergman, vice president of the Coordinating Committee of Jewish Organisations in Belgium, told Reuters. “Today, the feelings among our community members are a mixture of sadness, worry and profound shock.”
Liege’s mayor, Willy Demeyer, praised the synagogue community to RBTF, Belgium’s French-language national broadcaster. He added, “We cannot allow foreign conflicts to be imported into our city.”
The post Belgian officials investigating synagogue explosion as possible act of terrorism appeared first on The Forward.
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The Top 100 People Positively Influencing Jewish Life, 2025
In honor of The Algemeiner‘s 12th annual gala, we are proud to present our “J100” list — 100 individuals who have positively influenced Jewish life over the past year.