The brother of two boys swept out to sea off the coast of Netanya delivered an emotional appeal to the public, urging increased tefillah and personal growth as the family endures an agonizing ordeal.

Since Friday, when the two Spiegel brothers were pulled into the water at Sanz Beach, their family — along with many across the Jewish world — has been davening continuously, hoping for the recovery of the brother who drowned and the healing of the one who was injured. In an interview on Kol Chai’s main broadcast, their brother, Chaykel Spiegel, spoke about the difficult days the family is facing.

Asked how to describe the current moment — a stretch of time filled with tension, uncertainty, and hope — he responded candidly: “I don’t know how to define these days. It’s not simple at all. What we are going through is what all of Klal Yisroel is going through — difficult days. Hashem wants us to draw closer and closer and is asking for it. If you had asked me two days ago what He wants, I would have said prayer, and that’s how I see it — He wants more and more, that we should pray even more. It is written that Hashem desires the prayers of the righteous, He loves the tefillos of the Jewish people so much, and if He wants more — then we will daven and daven.”

Amid the pain, Chaykel described the remarkable character of his brothers and the lessons he draws from their daily conduct: “I saw them so many times — my older brother and my younger brother — that they always thought: what does the other person want me to do for him? They would help me with my young children, they always thought about others. So much thought for other people, in matters between one person and another. They have so many good traits, on a level that is truly exceptional. A complete personal example.”

Toward the end of the interview, he asked the public to take on a practical commitment in their merit, centered on love for fellow Jews: “Anyone who can should take upon themselves to say every morning, ‘I accept upon myself the positive commandment of loving your fellow as yourself.’ Each person should pause for ten seconds before saying it — whether in shul or anywhere — and run through in their mind where they are going to be that day, and with whom they will fulfill this mitzvah. If I will be at a wedding in the evening, who will I meet there? Just quickly run it through once — a few seconds of thinking about the other person.”

Chaykel concluded with a message of unwavering faith, expressing confidence in the power of prayer and good deeds: “Everyone who hears this should continue to believe and strengthen themselves in faith. There is no power in the world that can determine what will be with them except for our Father in Heaven.”

{Matzav.com}