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Decision Not to Fly on Shabbos Saves Man’s Life

“More than the Jews have kept the Shabbos, Shabbos has kept the Jews,” our sages declared. Rarely was this more apparent than this past Shabbos, when a Malaysia Airline flight mysteriously disappeared without a trace.

Andy, a non-observant Jew from Australia, planned on taking that fateful flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Beijing, China, but his Orthodox Jewish travel agent wouldn’t hear of it. “I don’t like booking flights for fellow Jews on Shabbos,” he wrote to Andy.

At first Andy was prepared to go ahead and book the flight himself, but he had a change of heart and decided to amend his plans rather than violate the Shabbos.

This decision would save his life.

Read the fascinating e-mail exchange between Andy and his travel agent, which was published in full on DansDeals.com.

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24 Comments

  • Boruch Sholom Wolf

    Thank you Crownheights.info and dansdeals.com for the great story.

  • reader

    If only a couple of the passengers on that flight would decide not to be Muslim, a few hundred lives would be saved!

  • Feh!

    Happy for the Australian Yid, but this is not a feel-good story. In fact, 99% of the people on that flight would be chayev miso for ‘keeping Shabbos.’ The Malaysian plane didn’t fall out of the sky because it flew on Shabbos.

    • Reb Dovid

      שוטה! The plane didn’t vanish for flying on Shabbos. It was Shabbos that saved him from the plane!

    • Milhouse

      Nobody suggested that it did. This happened for a reason that we may never know. (We may find the cause but not the reason; only Hashem knows that, and we can only speculate.) But this yid was saved because he kept Shabbos. You can’t deny it. If he’d flown on Shabbos as he’d planned, he’d be dead. He’s alive because he decided to keep Shabbos. And that is clearly Hashem’s hand.

    • Feh!

      The guy didn’t keep Shabbos. And Shabbos didn’t keep him. He had a meeting 3 PM “Saturday” afternoon in a distant city to which he DROVE. If the Shliach Friday night somehow convinced the businessman to skip the meeting and then something terrible happened to many cars on the way to that city then you’d have “a second chance occurrence.” If THREE amazing things happened with this guy and Shabbos, you’d have a coincidence. If FOUR amazing things happened then you have to start thinking wow something amazing is happening here with this guy and Shabbos. The way it’s now, happy for him, is just the way the mop flopped. How many times did this travel agent not book tickets for people on Shabbos and the plane arrived just fine? Again, I’m very happy for this Australian Yid, but more than 270 people have gone missing. We don’t need this to distort on the internet that Jews celebrate plane disappearance because one Jew didn’t board. Or even worse, that the “Jews” somehow had advance knowledge not to board the flight. This businessman had the mazel to have an erliche travel agent, but let’s not make it a feel-good story, and rationally speaking, it’s not all that exceptional.

    • Kop Mentch

      This story is an “old” one – it comes in various versions and appears after each plane crash, hijacked plane, bombed plane, and even at 9/11 World Trade Center.

      It has become the Jewish Urban Legend, as each story is told by someone who knows someone who heard it from that person.

      Remember it comes from Dan’s Deals,,,

      If you get inspired – great, but take it with a grain of salt.

  • to number 3 Feh!

    I can see your logic but you are missing the point. That plane was destined to fall out of the sky. Those people on the plane were destined to be there for reasons which only Hashem knows.

    However this particular person who didn’t fly on shabbos may have had a certain reason that he was also , chas vshalom, destined to be on a plane which would fall out of the sky, and keeping shabbos protected him from this tragedy.

    Being that this shabbos is is parshas zochor, we should all do what we can do and wipe out the Amalek – kaltkeit, from ourselves. Umarbim b’simcha.

  • ?!

    While this is a wonderful story of one mans survival, you seem to forget that so many have tragically died!

    • HUH?

      Because we morn those who died means we can’t celebrate those who did survive?

  • to number 6

    The outcome is not determined yet if the plane has crashed, but it is presumed. Who knows?

  • is this for real?

    Something tells me this story is made up. Crown heights info. Did you do any research who the people are in this story to validate it’s authenticity? I wouldn’t publish a story unless I did research.

    • reader

      If it’s a hoax, he’ll publish a retraction and life will move on, believe it or not. Dansdeals aint a bad source.

  • to number 10. is this for real

    It seems that you didn’t follow the email exchanges on Dans deals. first follow the exchange of emails on dans deals and then make your comment.

  • cynicism at its best.

    No one asked you to believe it. As long as the guy is alive and well is all that matters…

  • uziyohu brown

    to #8 have you nev er heard of the mitzva of leshon hora if you haven”t then please look it up evidently each time one telltales one is comitting many more than just one sin

  • Sages

    The quote at the beginning of the article is not from our Sages, but from Ahad Ha’am, an Israeli poet.

  • Kop Mentch

    Since when do frum yidden believe that Hashem gives rewards for mitzvos in THIS WORLD? That is simply contrary to Torah!

    Every child knows: שכר מצוה בהאי עלמא ליכא (as per קידושין לט ב)!

    So from where did this article and the cheer leading comments of non-Torah (or anti-Torah) hashkafa come from?

    I am shocked to see so many that are entrenched in hepech haTorah hashkofos on such an elementary issue!