A meteor miracle from God

Meteor interrupts prayers in Russian synagogue; worshipers resumed service, despite lack of windows and subfreezing weather.

By SAM SOKOL
meteor370 (photo credit: courtesy )
meteor370
(photo credit: courtesy )
Prayers continued in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk’s synagogue on Friday morning, despite a meteor exploding overhead, causing a shock-wave that shattered windows and frayed the nerves of worshipers, Chabad Online reported.
Participants in the morning prayer service ran for cover as all of the building’s windows broke, local Chabad emissary Rabbi Yechiel Levitin told COL.
“We heard a huge explosion above the synagogue and did not know what it was,” Levitin told the website.
There was a “flash of light... glass shattered all around, and people were trying to escape, but there was nowhere to run.
“One of the prayer-goers ran outside to see what was happening,” the rabbi continued.
“At that moment a large piece of glass landed on the spot where he was sitting.
It was a revealed miracle.”
In a trembling voice he recounted that the window of the synagogue office also shattered, and he asserted that it was also a miracle that nobody was inside that particular room at the time.
Members of the Chabad hassidic movement have already begun soliciting donations for repairs.
According to COL, worshipers resumed the service, despite the lack of windows and subfreezing temperatures.
Rabbi Meir Kirsch, the movement’s senior rabbi in Chelyabinsk, said that “many are frightened in the city,” reported the Chabad.org website. On Friday, he called “for everyone to gather together tonight for the Shabbat prayers and meal,” despite the damage.
“We hope that together we could give each other faith and encouragement, and educate everyone what they need to do to stay out of danger.”
Chelyabinsk’s 1,130,132 residents had to deal with widespread damage caused by the meteor, whose explosion caused property damage and injured around 1,200 people.
In a statement, NASA noted that the estimate for energy released during the event stands at “nearly 500 kilotons,” or more than 30 times the force of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima by the American military in 1945.