“The Mezuzahs Saved My Life”
Lubavitcher entrepreneur Eli Posner lives in Nashua, New Hampshire along with his business partner Mendel Mangel. This afternoon a fire broke out and ravaged their apartment, destroying most of what’s inside and overwhelming the town’s firefighters. In an interview with a local newspaper, Eli credits the fact that he and his friend escaped unharmed to the Mezuzahs affixed to the doors of their apartment.
From the Nashua Telegraph:
Firefighters from several towns battled brutal heat and a fast-moving fire that gutted a south Nashua home Wednesday afternoon.
Fire crews were called to 6 Jenny Hill Lane, in the city’s southwest corner near the Massachusetts border, shortly after 1:30 p.m., according to Nashua Fire and Rescue Deputy Chief Dan Cronin.
Heavy smoke and fire was showing from the building when the crews arrived, he said, but firefighters were able to get inside and determine no one was home. No one was injured by the blaze, but two firefighters were transported to city hospitals with heat exhaustion, Cronin said.
Flames were in the basement and first floor of the home when crews first arrived and rapidly spread to the second floor and attic. Flames burst through the roof in several spots before firefighters were able to stretch multiple hose lines up the long, tree-lined driveway and douse the fire.
“The fire had a real good head start on us. It was trouble for us keeping up with it,” Cronin said. “It traveled real fast. We believe it had been burning for some time prior to the call.”
The blaze eventually went to three alarms, he said.
Crews attacked the fire from inside and outside with water trucked to the house by tankers because there are no hydrants in the neighborhood.
Even after the flames were knocked down, thick plumes of heavy, light colored smoke poured through holes in the roof and shrouded the residential neighborhood located off Main Dunstable Road near Yudicky Farm Conservation Area and Lovewell Pond.
Cronin said he didn’t know if the house was a total loss but said the damage was “substantial.”
Eli Posner, one of the men who rent the home, credited no one being hurt to the mezuahs posted at virtually all of the home’s doorways. The pieces of parchment inscribed with scripture taken from the Torah are supposed to provide protection, he said.
“Everything we have is in there. I’m assuming the majority is gone but we’ll get up tomorrow morning, go back to work and just keeping going,” he said. “We’re in shock. We were home an hour ago and the house was fine. Now it’s not fine.”
Posner said he rents the house with his business partner Mendel Mangel.
Several other towns sent tanker trucks and other apparatus to assist Nashua, including Hudson, Londonderry and Dunstable, Mass. Salvation Army volunteers were also on the scene.
The high temperature and stifling humidity were also a factor. Several of those volunteers lugged huge buckets of bottled water on ice up the driveway to the front yard where firefighters, dripping with sweat, sprawled in the front yard, dousing themselves with the water and draping water soaked towels on their heads and necks.
While some firefighters continued dousing hot spots, others sought out shade in the front yard, which was strewn with their jackets, helmets, air tanks, axes and water bottles.
“They really worked hard working in these conditions,” Cronin said. “It was just good aggressive fire fighting.”
The neighborhood of single family homes was blanketed with a layer of white smoke and several neighbors came out of their homes to watch the commotion.
Kevin Capone, a Chicago resident back in his hometown for a visit, walked up to the scene from Main Dunstable Road after noticing all of the fire trucks rushing past. At first he only spotted smoke pouring from the house.
“Then it got intense and burst up through the roof and into the trees,” he said.
The Nashua Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the cause.
Several people at the scene, including Posner and Mangel, thought a lightning strike from passing storms could be to blame.
Cronin said fire companies spent part of the afternoon responding to alarm activations through the city as a result of the storms.
The home is owned by the Sumathi Madhure Revocable Trust. The four-bedroom, four-bath house on 1.3 acres is assessed at $478,900, according to city assessing records.
At the time the fire was first reported, severe thunderstorms were rolling through the Nashua area.
zeidy and bubby m
B“H both you, Mendy and your partner are both OK.
One more proof that Mezuzah is the best insurance. I am sure you know the well-known statement of our Rebbeim that ”noch a sfrayfe vert men raich!!
The more the ruchniusdike kelim are prepared, the more the gashmius ashirus flows.
Hatzlacha muflaga!
Zeidy and Bubby M.
you are kidding, right?
No fire hydrants in the neighborhood?
Best Wishes to Mangel and Posner
Mendel Mangel,we are so proud of your attitude and calmness thru all this.May Hashem bentch you to regain much more than you lost begashmius and beruchnius!!!!!
Mitnagid
Here’s the age old controversy again!Traditional Judaism holds that mezuzot are only objects which remind us we have to perform mitzvoth and remember Hashem;you guys believe they are talismans with a protective power.That’s plain,unadultereted idol worship!
Mitnagid
http://www.mesora.org/mezuz…
A Misnagid stays a Misnaged than.
“Traditional Judaism holds that mezuzot are only objects which remind us we have to perform mitzvoth and remember Hashem;you guys believe they are talismans with a protective power.That’s plain,unadultereted idol worship!”
Are you saying that to believe that when we have a mezuza G-d invests himself to protect a person and the house is Idol worship?! (note it is not the Talisman that protects it is G-d himself!)
Well than we are in good company with Onkulus the Ger in A“Z 11a
(That G-d guards us from the outside, unlike other kings that need guarding.
You are saying that Rebbi was Ch”v idolatrous?!
this is what the Yerushalmi in Pea 1:1 says
Rebbi was sent a valuable stone and was told to send something as valuable back. Rebbe sent back a Mezuza. When he claimed that it was a chutzpah Rebbi responded “You sent me something that I need to guard and I sent you something that guards you”.
This is echoed in the Tur Yoreh Deah 285
I think we are in good company to believe that the one G-d Almighty protects his people through the mezuza. ( I tend to believe that people who cant believe that a mezuza protects them have other question on their faith and not vice versa.)
If you really had intelectual honesty you would read the sicha with all the FN where the Rebbe explains this. it is in lekutai sichos 19 pg 121 and on
(I put in all the hebrew quotes but it wouldn’t recognize it. I am sure you will look up the sources yourself in an honest manner)
Wondering...
Nashua, New Hampshire…
Jewish populastion there?
Daily Minyan?
Mikva?
Kosher food?
Daf Yomi shiur?
mendels friend!
Hatzlocho Rabo in every aspect of your life! I wish you and your partner even more success in your business than before.
Mitnagid
#6,the Rambam was against believing in talismans and mezuzot having a ‘protective’ power!I also don’t understand how can you question someone’s faith,when he states that he believes in Hashem ONLY and does not trust idols/talismans….
Mitnagid
#6,and if you read the link I posted,you’ll find it deals with the episode you quoted at page 7.
To #8
WHAT IS A JEWISH POPULASTION?
A misnagid is a Misnagid.
to 9 your logic is skewed, If you will have noticed I already answered your question. you trust ONLY in hashem. HASHEM is the one protecting the house when you place the Mezuzah and do the mitzvos. This is what the Torah says over and over. Im bchukosai tailaichu vnasoti gishmeichem etc. It is not a magic trick, It is G-d Almighty protecting the home.
Like you said you are a Misnagid not an honest truth thinking individual.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe was a little bit more of a talmid Chocham than Martin L. Gordon. To not have enough intellectual honesty to think that the Rebbe knew how to learn as well is both foolish and dishonest.
The writer at the beginning of his article discredits the Zohar the Arizal the sefer Razial Hamalach and the Lubavitcher Rebbe all in one breath. His war is not only against Chabad but all of Kabbalah, with a person with such an attitude I can have no discourse!
Milhouse
One who does not believe in Kabboloh is a kofer. He is not part of klal yisroel. He can “blame” the Rambam all he likes, but it won’t change the facts. End of story.
Mitnagid
#Millhouse,hahahaha!There are PLENTY of Jews who don’t believe in kabalah!And I have been personally told by a very chassidic rabbi I know that NOT believing in kabalah is perfectly fine.His exact words were:“There are many rabbis who say that kabalah is a load of nonsense;and they are entitled to saying it!”
Milhouse
#14, Since you admit to not believing in kaboloh you are a kofer and have no ne’emonus, so I don’t have to believe your story. In addition, you are certainly no judge of who is “very chassidic”; if this “very chassidic rabbi” of yours even exists, he is nothing of the kind.
Mitnagid
Who decided that one who does not believe in kabalah is a kofer?You?For your information,there are MANY Jews who don’t believe in it,including rabbis!Get some information before you talk about a topic!