The great miracle of the terrible attack in Neve Ya’akov: if the terrorist had arrived two hours earlier, immediately after the prayer, or an hour later when they were finishing the Shabbat meals and marching to ‘Avot ve Sons’, ‘Shalom Zachar’, or to the ‘Singing of the Requests’ – the results would have been much harder
20:15, the time when the terrible attack took place on Shabbat night Kodesh Parshat Ba near the ‘Atarat Avraham’ synagogue in the Neve Ya’akov neighborhood of Jerusalem, is not the time of prayer, but a time when the people of Israel en masse eat the Shabbat meals at home.
It’s scary to think, what would have been the results of the attack if it had happened an hour later, when Avrach and Beni Torah and the local residents would have gone for a walk, or gone to ‘Shalom Zachar’, the study of ‘Avot Benim’, or to the ‘Singing of the Requests’ in the synagogues – after the meal at night the long winters.
Abrach residents of Neve Ya’akov who spoke to a reporter from ‘Ba Haderi Haredim’ say out loud that there was a great miracle here in the neighborhood. According to them, this is the only time of the week when not a single cow is found on the street. The prayer ended a little after 18:00 and everyone is then having a meal at home with the family. “It’s scary to think what would have happened if it had been an hour later or two hours earlier when leaving the prayer.”
According to a resident of the neighborhood who lives nearby: “The terrorist began the killing spree near the synagogue on the Neve Ya’akov square at the corner of Tabenkin where he murdered four, later he arrived at the Ataret Avraham synagogue where he shot the others who came out to help.”
“It looked like a battle scene, a great horror in front of our eyes, shouting and wailing. I have never seen anything like this in my life, I say again, if it had been two hours earlier or even half an hour later it could have ended in dozens of deaths, we have to thank the Holy One he”.