There's so much I want to write about this week of Chol Hamoed, but it all seems so insignificant now.

Hashem shows us in so many ways that He is in control. Happiness and tragedy can each happen in the blink of an eye.

Tragedy struck yesterday. My Rabbi in St. Louis, the person responsible for my changing my entire life 13 years ago to a path that I bless and feel grateful for each and every day, a person I worked for the past 9 years, was in a horrific car accident with five of his (10) children.

Baruch Hashem no one was killed. But from what I understand the car flipped over several times and the youngest child, age 7, was thrown from the car. They were airlifted to several different hospitals where four remain. Three of them are in serious but stable condition, but the fourth, the youngest, is in very, very critical condition. There is excessive swelling in his brain, and even though he had surgery this morning, the swelling is not abating.

Please pray and say tehillim for a complete recovery for:
Dovid ben Bracha
Tehilla bat Bracha
Eliyahu Chaim ben Bracha
Elisha ben Bracha

David and I got several calls and emails this morning, and we went into Yerushalayim to daven for them at the kosel (western wall). All of the young people from St. Louis who are here learning have organized that all of tehillim be read on a daily basis, and there is a minyan going on right now at the kosel (10:30 PM) with St. Louisans from all around Israel.

The children are in 3 different hospitals in St. Louis. The entire observant community there has rallied to help: they said tehillim last night and different people are staying with Tehilla, Elisha and Chaim in 2 of the hospitals while the Rabbi and his wife are staying with Dovid. Tehilla and Dovid are having surgery right now for broken bones. It's a nightmare.

May Hashem send them a complete and speedy recovery and may we hear b'sorot tovot.