To understand today’s class, we need some background information: ELAL 402 was an international passenger flight from London to Tel Aviv via Vienna and Istanbul. On July 26th, 1955, the flight strayed into Bulgarian airspace and was attacked by two Bulgarian MIG15 jet fighters. All seven crew members and 51 passengers on board the airliner were killed. Horrible story. What is the relevance to our class? About ten years later, there was an article in a secular newspaper in Israel entitled, I Wish I Was Religious . The writer of the article described that as a businessman, he’d fly all over Europe on business. Flights back then were not that frequent – maybe only once a week. He was once sitting in a plane with his seatbelt on, when the manager of the flight got on and made an announcement: There were two ladies, a mother and a daughter, begging to get on that flight. They had a family wedding that they had to attend, and if they didn't get on this plane, they’d miss the wedding, as the next flight was not until a week later. There was only one empty seat, so these two women were asking if someone would volunteer to get off the flight as a favor. Everyone was quiet, and then this man (the author of the article) got up. He said he didn't really care, as there was nothing really forcing him to come home. And he felt bad for these two ladies. So he took took his luggage and gave them his seat. “I then went to the city, found a hotel, sat down and turned on the radio. I started to tremble when I heard that the flight that I was supposed to be on was shot down. And I survived because of the kindness that I did.” He was the only one that survived. “ That night, I went to sleep and in my dream ( and for many nights thereafter), these two ladies were pointing their fingers at me, saying, ‘You killed us! If you wouldn't have given us your seat, we would be alive today.’ I couldn't fall asleep that night, nor for many nights afterwards, and I still feel the guilt that I caused this to happen. I eventually quit my regular job and became a journalist. I just can't focus. I've been suffering with this trauma for the past 10 years.” “I go back to the title of the article,” the writer says. “ I Wish I was Religious ,” because if I was religious, then I would've had something to respond to these ladies with in my dream. I would've said, ‘I didn't kill you. There's a Creator of the world, that runs the world, and He is sitting in the heavens deciding that I should have lived, and you should not. I don't know why He decided that, but I have to thank Him that I was saved. He decided that that's for me. He chose you to be the messengers to save me. I'm not responsible.’” He ends the article with, “ But it's a shame. I'm not religious, and therefore I don't have that comfort.” Rav Wolbe commented on this, that even though this man was not religious, Hashem would reward him for sharing that wonderful thought with the world, that people who are religious have a certain comfort when things that they don't understand happen, because they know that there's Someone big up there that's making the decisions. There's a story that happened many (about 60) years ago. A young rabbi (who eventually became Rav Michel Yehuda Leftkowitz) was learning in Kollel. On one Friday night, he was moving a large kettle full of hot water in his kitchen. He somehow he slipped near his young daughter, and the boiling, hot water spilled on her. She eventually passed away from her injuries. He was obviously terribly distraught because he seemingly killed his own daughter. He could not be comforted until the Chazon Ish told him the following: Imagine you were walking and an angel took the pot out of your hands and spilled it. You wouldn't feel responsible, because you didn't do it. The angel did it. ” And he explained that that was what happened. “ You didn't do anything. The angel did it, and therefore you are not responsible.” And this is why, as we always say, religion and Emunah cognitions help us deal with life's challenges, whether it's feeling guilt for what we did, taking responsibility for what we did, or even understanding what other people did. As we have quoted in the past, the Ben Ish Chai says that when a child, or whomever, causes some mishap on Friday afternoon, we can't blame the child, because the Satan is using him as his messenger, to cause disturbances and wreak havoc in a house on Erev Shabbat. Again, these are all Emunah cognitions that help us, and we have to be thankful for that. And we don't have to say, I wish I was religious, because, Baruch Hashem, we are religious.