The 8th grade of Beis Chaya Mushka of Crown Heights writes about the seudas hoda’ah they held at the start of the war in Eretz Yisroel in the merit of one of the hostages, and the miraculous results they saw.
By the 8th Grade of Beis Chaya Mushka, Crown Heights
Thanking Hashem in advance has unimaginable powers. It’s through firm emunah and bitachon that we merit to see complete salvation and many miracles.
Here is our story.
At the beginning of this horrible war, our teacher surprisingly came into class with an excited smile, and she told us, “Today we are going to make a seudas hoda’ah for the release of our precious brothers and sisters in Eretz Yisrael, who are currently in captivity, in the hands of ruthless reshoim!” She continued by telling us that the power of zooming in on one person is incredible. Many Jews around the world have done this in the hope that every hostage has someone who will make a seudas hoda’ah in their honor and for their immediate release.
And so our class zoomed in on one innocent precious girl who was then at the tender age of 3 – Avigail Eden. Our teacher showed us an angelic picture of Avigail so we can really visualize her, and somewhat resonate with her. This was put on the wall of our classroom for everyone to see. In addition, every girl also received a pocket-sized picture of her to keep with them.
But we were left with a question, and our teacher noticed our quizzical looks. A seudas hoda’ah for what?! Isn’t a seudas hoda’ah made when thanking Hashem for a miracle that already happened?
Our teacher began to explain the purpose of thanking Hashem in advance by showing us a video of the amazing miracle of the 2 residents of Chicago who have been miraculously released, and how the community actually made seudas hoda’ah in advadnce for their immediate release. She also shared that there are sources from the Torah, and stories of tzaddikim that show how making a seudas hoda’ah, even while we don’t see the results yet, has a huge and unimaginable impact.
Our teacher really brought this concept to life for us! We were mesmerized by the stories our teacher told us and we began to feel really inspired! Wow! We can do so much! We have so much power, we can have a tremendous impact even from so far away!
We went through a list of things that the community of Chicago has done at their seudas hoda’ah and we did many of them, starting with brachos. The first bracha we made was Hagafen, with a lechaim to thank Hashem.
Our teacher started and exclaimed, “Thank you Hashem for the release of Avigial bas Smadar.” Then we went around and each of us individually thanked Hashem and added our own bracha, while envisioning Avigial being released at that very moment! We really felt the brachos coming down!
Then we continued with mezonos, haetz, and shehakol. This was followed by tzedaka and Tehilim.
We thanked Hashem for the release of Avigial, while imagining her running to embrace her siblings and family members, and for the immediate release of all the hostages, and that they should not be physically harmed, nor mentally, and ending off with the final and complete redemption!
But that wasn’t the end, our class didn’t just leave it there. After the seudas hoda’ah, we continued doing many things in her merit. We had her in mind during davening, and we said the 12 pesukim for her daily, before class. Some girls even said Avigial’s kapital daily, while others had her in mind and said her name by hafrashas challa.
She was constantly on our minds and hearts. We did so many mitzvos in her merit. We felt like we already knew her so well. She was like our girl.
A couple of weeks later on Yud gimmel Kislev – November 26th, is when our class merited to see the proof of how our strong belief brought to Avigial’s salvation, her release.
She was miraculously was chosen out of all the many hostages to be released. She actually was the first Israeli American to be released, which is incredible. We now really see the strong power of thanking Hashem in advance.
We had many emotions. We were so thankful to Hashem, and so happy for Avigail. Many of us had chills down our backs. Some were almost on the verge of tears. And, of course, happiness, we just wanted to jump and sing and let everyone know about this incredible miracle.
Seeing pictures of her reunited with her family, our vision we had the whole time gave us flashbacks to when we davened for her, and how we thanked Hashem for this in advance. Now, we got to see it actualized!
We hope to convey this message to everyone, and spread this miracle. We hope our story inspires you to do the same! Thanking Hashem in advance is incredibly powerful!
Kudos to BCM for instilling positive energy, even in the roughest moments!
This is real Chinuch that impacts the world