A dramatic miracle unfolded in Bnei Brak on Shabbos afternoon when a massive piece of shrapnel struck a residential building, penetrating two apartments, yet all 12 members of one extended family escaped unharmed.
The incident occurred around 4:35 p.m. when a large fragment fell onto a home at 4 Donolo Street in Bnei Brak. The shrapnel tore through the roof and damaged two apartments belonging to the Gumbo and Luria families.
According to reports, the family members were saved in what relatives are calling an open miracle. The grandfather, Rav Tzvi (Hershel) Gumbo, Rosh Kollel at the Makova Beis Medrash in Bnei Brak and one of the respected rabbanim of the community, lives on the third floor. Above him, on the fourth floor, resides the family of his daughter, the Luria family. Together with the grandfather, there were 12 family members in the building at the time.
When the air raid siren sounded, the family immediately left their apartments and descended to the building’s stairwell, where they recited chapters of Tehillim. Notably, the apartments do not have a reinforced security room, prompting them to seek shelter in the stairwell.
Rabbi Luria, the son-in-law, had been learning at that very moment together with his father-in-law, Rabbi Gumbo. Upon hearing the siren, they too quickly went down to the stairwell.
While they were there, they heard a powerful explosion. When they returned to their apartments, they found devastation. The massive shrapnel had pierced the fourth-floor apartment and continued downward into the third-floor residence, causing extensive destruction to both homes.
Family members described the event as “a Purim miracle,” emphasizing the extraordinary timing that placed them in the stairwell rather than inside their apartments at the moment of impact.
At Mincha, Rabbi Gumbo arrived at the Makova Beis Medrash on Rechov Rabbeinu Tam in Bnei Brak dressed in white — his shtreimel and bekeshe — and, visibly emotional, recited Birkas HaGomel in thanksgiving for the miraculous salvation.
{Matzav.com}