Saved from Murder by a Terrorist in the Merit of the Blessing of the Gaon and

Here is a wondrous story testifying to the holiness and simplicity that our teacher, the Gaon and Tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a, instills in his students. Nachman Lerner shichyeh, a righteous avreich (married student) from Yeshivat Shuvu Banim in the Old City, returned as usual on Shabbat from the Western Wall at 12:00 PM. Like the other students of the Rav shlit"a, Nachman Lerner walked with shmiras einayim (guarding his eyes), his body still wrapped in the Tallis from the Shacharit prayer from which he was returning, while reciting the Tikkun HaKlali on the way. As he was exiting the Damascus Gate of the Old City walls, suddenly an Arab female terrorist ran toward him with a knife, trying with all her might to stab him. Needless to say, not a single Jew was seen around, and certainly no security personnel.

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Finally, Nachman Lerner managed to evade that terrorist and continued to his home to conduct the Shabbat seudah (festive meal) in the presence of his family. However, what was clearly visible to the police cameras and was understood by all the Arab onlookers around as a cruel attempted terror attack, turns out was not at all clear to the victim, Nachman Lerner.

Lerner, upon arriving home, told his household that some Arab woman had attacked another Arab near Damascus Gate and afterwards scratched him. In fact, Lerner thought to himself that this was likely a mentally unstable woman bothering people on the way, and he did not understand at all that there was an attempted murder here. Therefore, he continued on his way without attributing special importance to the matter. But the story did not end there.

Immediately on Sunday morning, the police contacted avreichim from Yeshivat Shuvu Banim asking them to try and identify that avreich whom they tried to stab. Those students tried to reach Lerner, but without success; Lerner simply refuses to stop his studies in the Old City and, of course, he does not even carry a mobile phone.

One of the students sent to locate him in the Yeshiva so he would go to testify at the police station related that Lerner did not understand what they wanted from him at all. The Yeshiva student asked him how the thought that he was saved from murder did not frighten him. He answered that he relies on the blessing of our teacher, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a, who told him recently that he can walk calmly through Damascus Gate without any fear because "angels accompany him in the merit of shmiras einayim (guarding the eyes)."

These are the words of Nachman Lerner: "Thank you very much to Hashem Yitbarach for all the miracles. The police say that it is impossible to explain what happened to me other than as an open miracle. There is no connection between what I myself felt and what I saw on the police cameras, and indeed what actually happened. The police told me, 'Sir, what old woman? This was a 26-year-old terrorist who stabbed you with many stabs'." Nachman Lerner shares the police response with us. "This is what our teacher, Rabbi Berland shlit"a, always says: whoever learns Gemara, whoever guards their eyes, whoever goes to the Kotel—angels guard him. The police told me that the Holy One, Blessed is He, in His glory and essence, hugged me." Up to here is the response of Nachman Lerner shichyeh.