To thank Hashem, Who had soaked the grounds in preparation for this very day

Camp Nageela Midwest is a kiruv-oriented camp located on a beautiful, lakeside campus in Ingleside, Illinois. This year, the summer season got off to a wet start. The rain just wouldn’t abate. For the better part of the three-week girls’ session that runs from the end of June through mid-July, campers and staff alike watched as the amenity-filled outdoor campus was awash in rain. Every camp makes plans for a few rainy days throughout the season, but this year, for Nageela, rain was the rule rather than the exception. One staff member estimated that the rainfall during those two weeks amounted to what the region normally expects in six months. The camp was forced to transition to indoor programming, and the staff kept up a good spirit, focusing on seeing the positive in the gishmei brachah that relentlessly poured down on Ingleside.

Less than 24 hours after the girls’ season ended, Nageela was readying itself for the boys’ session when a devastating three-alarm fire broke out at 4:30 a.m. The flames engulfed a wooden structure, reducing it to a pile of ash in a matter of minutes. Firefighters battled the flames and finally got it under control, preventing it from spreading further. B’chasdei Hashem, no one was injured in the conflagration, and no valuables were lost.

Upon conferring with the firefighters, the head staff members realized just how prescient their designation of the torrential downpours as “gishmei brachah” was. The officials relayed that normally, a fire of that magnitude would spread to the entire campus in a matter of minutes, but as the ground was so thoroughly saturated with the rains of the prior two weeks, they were able to keep it contained it to just that building. A grateful staff thanked the fire department for their efforts — and then turned to thank Hashem, Who had soaked the grounds in preparation for this very day.

From his Keppeleh…

At the “Klal Yisroel Shul” in Woodburne, New York, Rav Mordechai Jungreis greets every mispallel with a heartfelt brachah, placing his hands on each one’s head as he does so, and wishing them well. Here, with his tallis glistening in the first rays of the early morning sun, the Rebbe greets yet another mispallel grateful to receive one of the thousands of brachos that will be dispensed that day.

Prayer for Life

Thousands converged upon Har Hazeisim in Jerusalem on Sunday, 15 Tammuz, to gather at the kever of the Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh on his 281st yahrtzeit.

There is a story that, during World War II, when General Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Korps was advancing on Eretz Yisrael, the Husyatiner Rebbe and Rav Shlomke  of Zvehil, joined by scores of desperate Jews, gathered before the Ohr HaChaim’s kever on the yahrtzeit, beseeching HaKadosh Baruch Hu for mercy.

When they finished davening, the Husyatiner Rebbe proclaimed confidently that all would be well, explaining that he had seen the Sheim Havayah hovering above the Ohr HaChaim’s kever. Rommel’s army was defeated by the Allies at the Battle of El Alamein.

As the Jewish People continue to endure an onslaught of attacks from those who seek to destroy us, we join in prayer and hope that the zechus of the Ohr HaChaim should continue to stand us in good stead.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1021)