Translation by Yehoshua Siskin
"Shalom Sivan, David Saada here. My wife and I recently moved into Moshav Beit Meir and today we were forced to leave due to the huge fire in the Jerusalem hills. It is difficult to describe the feeling when you see black smoke clouds outside your home and they are telling you that you must evacuate. And you ask yourself: What is most important to take with you? All your life goes smoothly and suddenly you have just a few moments to ask: What is most valuable to you? It's about survival and it's frightening. I said to myself that I will leave here with just a few items and return to see all the rest of my possessions destroyed.
Now as I relive those last few seconds, I recall taking my tallit, tefillin, a few holy books, some books of Rav Nachman, the guitars and the cats. We left in our car in a panic after making sure our neighbors were alright. We drove through a cloud of smoke while flames threatened to burn down our house.
Baruch HaShem, we are okay, we are staying with my mother-in-law, our house is also okay, but it was still an earth-shattering experience. We received a 'jolt' for the month of Elul as we were compelled to ask ourselves: What's most important in life?".
