From his hospital bed in Hadassah Hospital where the bullet wound to his leg is being treated, he spoke with Arutz-7’s Uzi Baruch on Thursday morning and said, “I’m not sure if I’m 37 years old – or one day old, after what happened to me last night. So I figure I’m somewhere in between, a youth of about 18 and a half… Only now that I am out of it, I can recount about ten miracles that happened to us in the space of about five minutes, with praise and thanks to G-d.”
Rabbi Moreno teaches at the pre-military yeshiva academy in Maaleh Ephraim, on the western edge of the Jordan Valley. He is the younger brother of one of the most famous casualties of the 2nd Lebanon War of 2006, Lt.-Col. Emanuel Moreno, who was known for his leadership skills, bravery, all-around soldiering, spirituality, and meticulous adherence to religious values.
“My wife and I were traveling back from Jerusalem to Maaleh Ephraim," Rabbi Moreno recounted. "We passed by the trempiada [where Yesha residents wait for rides] at French Hill, where we often pick people up and drop them off at Kokhav HaShachar [about two miles out of the way – ed.]. Luckily, as it turned out, there was no one there, nor at the next “stop,” at Hizme. After the turnoff to Rimonim, a car 'settled' in back of me with his brights on; I tried to signal him in various ways to lower them, or to pass me, but he kept on playing with me, until I finally just gave up. But I didn’t suspect anything."
“Suddenly, around the curve between Rimonim and Kokhav HaShachar, he overtook me and began firing at me, from point-blank range essentially. It was an unbelievable miracle that he did not hit us, except for one bullet in my leg; my wife was not hit at all. The police told me later that there were nine bullet holes in my door, and only one hit me. What are the chances that a man standing next to you as he passes by you in a car and firing a Kalachnikov rifle in automatic will not hit you – one in a billion? One in two billion? … An amazing miracle. But there has to be some accounting as to who gave them these guns [towards the beginning of the Oslo process].
“I veered the car towards the right, and G-d enabled me to regain control: I opened the door, got my wife and myself out of our seat belts and out of the car and we rolled ourselves down and away from the road. Another miracle is that my wife just ‘happened’ to be holding her cell phone in her hand, and also that it was a Pelephone and not Orange [cellular companies in Israel]; just 2-3 months ago we switched it, as there is no reception for Orange in that area. We found ourselves behind a big boulder, and I phoned a friend of mine in the area to call the army… I panicked for a moment and started to yell, but another miracle was that the terrorists or other Arabs were not there to hear me… This was a series of miracles that only now am I beginning to grasp.”
Rabbi Moreno made his own personal accounting as well: “I am not sure in what merit G-d chose to save my life. I have a few ideas: It could be some form of merits of my forefathers, or perhaps because at that very minute, my mother was reciting Psalms for two hours straight… Or it could be because of a special kindness that I did for someone in our town just the day before… I’m not sure, but the bottom line is that I have received my life anew, as a gift.”
In related news, the car from which the fatal shots were fired at the Beit Haggai victims on Tuesday evening was found by the Palestinian Authority security forces… Gershon Mesika, head of the Shomron Regional Council, has called on his fellow regional council heads to boycott the Rosh HaShanah toast called by Defense Minister Ehud Barak. “Jews are murdered as a result of his policies, and he goes out to celebrate,” Mesika said.
