The Netziv of Volozhin was once asked why does Dovid call upon the non-Jews to praise Hashem to which he responded: Only they truly know how much Hashem protects us because only they know how many times their plans have been thwarted by the desire of Hashem to protect us, in ways where we never even find out of their plans.

I want to tell you my story. On the 9th of Marcheshvan at 7:52 am I approached the bus stop where I wait every day to catch the 7:54 419 bus from RBS G to Jerusalem. That day I noticed two Arabs standing there, and although they did not necessarily look suspicious to me, the people around me seemed to be cowering in fear from them. I did like the Romans and kept my distance. The bus stop was teeming with Jewish people, mostly children under the age of 15. The 19 bus from RBS G to RBS A pulled up and was loaded to maximum capacity with all the children (and then another 20 kids were sardined on) leaving the bus stop empty except for me and two others waiting for the 419 (the two others were standing far behind the bus stop). The bus safely pulled away as a police car slowly crept towards the bus stop. Two yeshiva students exited the neighboring Shul walking towards me. One noticed the Arabs and clearly looked frightened and sped up and began to speak to me. The second student exited ten seconds later as the police car slowed to a halt in front of the bus stop and motioned to the Arabs to show their papers. A look of panic overtook them. As the second student, a good friend of mine named MK, walked out of the Shul the unthinkable happened. I watched one of the Arabs unleashed a knife and lodged it with ruthless unbridled hatred deep into the chest cavity of a fellow who never hurt anyone in his life. He is one of the most outstanding, good and sincere members of the community.

Somebody screamed “TERRORISTS!” I did a double take to assure my eyes were not fooling me. In denial, I thought “this doesn’t happen in real life!” I glimpsed back at the bloodthirsty Arab trying ferociously to push his knife as deep as possible into my friend’s back. The look in his eyes of bloodlust, hatred, cruelty, viciousness and surreal pleasure of murdering a Jew sent shivers down my spine that I still feel.

I ran into the adjacent building slamming the thick metal door shut to protect myself. Within milliseconds, I heard four gun shots ring out. I waited in the building panting shaking and crying. Then another four gunshots rang out. Another man who had run for cover together with me told me that since 7:00 he has been following these predators sensing they were dangerous. He called the police already at 7:00 and no one showed up until now.

We opened the door to find two Arabs lying unconscious on the other side of the street (I was shocked at the mercy of this policeman who did not shoot them dead on the spot after a murder attempt).

The whole story didn’t make sense. Why didn’t they get on the packed bus? Why didn’t they start killing people at the packed bus stop? Why didn’t they start their massacre half an hour before, as there are no police stations in the neighborhood it would have taken at least 10 minutes for police to come? Why didn’t they try to enter the packed shul?

These were no amateurs! They were experienced members of Hamas! One had been in jail for attempted terrorism! The man I was speaking to told me that in fact they had tried to board a number of busses, but either the driver refused them entry or they seemingly just decided to not board. I could not believe it!

Hashem was protecting us the whole time. They had so many chances and for no apparent reason rational or explanation decided to wait. The damage only started after the police were watching them. Not only that, MK was bandaged immediately (another miracle that the chief paramedic of the neighborhood lives right there), the knife missed his heart by mere millimeters, the slit through his jugular vein did not cut so deep, and he was released after 48 hours from the hospital. I was astounded at the generosity Hashem shined on us to protect us, keeping the Arabs at bay until their failure was certain.

One point bothered me: if MK would have been 3 seconds earlier or 3 seconds later he would have been spared, after such kindness from above how did he get caught in all of this [at the time I did not know how serious his wounds were and expected the worse]. Not only that, how could the Arabs be so stupid to run away TOWARDS the direction of the police car? I went to find the other fellow who I was talking to when the murder started to clarify. This brave soul, who did not run to hide, rather just took cover behind a wall in order to be prepared to help our wounded friend. (In fact, he directed the paramedic to MK, and noticed a slit in MK’s chest that the paramedic overlooked.) He told me that he watched them run and saw where they were trying to run to a kindergarten located directly across the street from the bus stop, where they could have either taken hostages or massacred the entire group of children. They had already been waiting at the bus stop for 10 minutes and had seen the layout; they knew exactly where to run. They believed that the police officer, still buckled in his car seat, would not be able to react fast enough before there were through the door. They almost succeeded they lay unconscious directly in front of the kindergarten. However, the police officer, who had already seen them maim one person, with divine assistance, was already in hyper-adrenaline mode and with “super human” speed wasted no time bolting out of his car and whipping out his gun to shoot them before reaching their safe haven.

I really saw how much Hashem was watching over us at that particular moment, that he sent MK out at the right second, and sent the Arabs into a panic that drove them to maim MK foiling their entire plans. Hashem takes away the intelligence of the intelligent to undo their evil plans.

I now know Hashem loves us and takes care of us. Someone in the neighborhood hung a sign at the site of the scene “Am Yisrael Chai”. But that does not say it all! Chazal tell us:

Caesar said to Rabbi Joshua Ben Chananiah “Great is the sheep that stands amongst 70 wolves!”

To which Rabbi Joshua Ben Chananiah responded, “No, great is the shepherd who protects and saves the sheep!”

A.B.