Boro Park Resident Miraculously Spared from Miami Tragedy, Gave Generous Tzeddakah Hours Before

As the entire country remains riveted with the unfolding Surfside tragedy, a glimmer of Heavenly Compassion came to light Monday afternoon—a tale of incredible Hashgachah that saved the lives of three members of the Boro Park community from falling victim to the tragedy.

 While the individual in question prefers to remain anonymous—and is still shocked at the turn of events—the following was told by Reb Binyomin Zev Schwartz, a real estate broker from Kiryas Yoel, to Reb Yitzchok Dresdner of the famed Kol Mevaser hotline, who independently verified the story from the firsthand source.

 “I was in Boro Park on business Tuesday afternoon, when I decided to visit a Yid on behalf of a cause which I had been collecting for a couple of years. He had given me a nice amount the year before. He indeed gave generously, and mentioned that he was heading to Miami the next day, intending to take up residence in an apartment that he had rented in Surfside.”

 He was scheduled to be occupying an apartment in the now-infamous Champlain Towers at the very moment of the collapse, along with his wife and daughter.

 But Hashem was watching him, and leading his footsteps away from a near-certain calamity. “My wife decided that since the apartment wasn’t set up yet, she wanted to sleep at a hotel for the night and head to the apartment in the morning to get settled in for Shabbos,” he related.

 As they were soundly asleep in their hotel room, the building—including the apartment which they were scheduled to occupy—crumbled to the ground, taking more than 150 victims along with it to a tragic end.

 While we will never know whether it was directly in the merit of the zechus of the generous tzeddakah he had given in hours before departing to Miami—and we are promised that tzeddakah shields from death—or the pure love from our Father in Heaven that spared these Boro Park Yidden from a tragic fate, this episode is a heartwarming reminder of the constant Hashgacha, even amid the most dire times.