The Mezuzah and the Lightning

The Jewish Project




Tishrei 26, 5770





(On Monday, my post reflected the story of how the Lord instructed us to mark our house with a Mezuzah. Here is our testimony of what happened afterwards.)





It was raining.

Upstairs, we could hear the thud of footsteps as the kids ran back and forth playing tag. We sat at the table talking and picking at the crumbs left on our dinner plates.

Outside, the storm raged. Staring through the back window, I remember being amazed by the amount of lightning this particular storm had when a bolt hit the top of our house. The noise was so loud that my simultaneous scream could not be heard. The kids flew down the steps and were standing next to us before I stopped screaming. Half the house was dark while the other half was life as usual.

Checking the breaker box, my husband found half the circuits flipped. He turned them back on and the house hummed.

In the after math, our cable modem was fried and our security system panel sputtered and spat until it choked and died. The only electronic item not on a surge protector was a lone DVD player and it also met its maker, but other than that, the house was intact. We could find no other damage.

The storms continued throughout the week and two days after the lightning strike, I found a wet spot on the upstairs ceiling. Certain this was from the strike; I called the insurance company and filed a claim. But, that evening, we determined the wet spot was due to the horizontal rain earlier that day that had blown into the roof vent. And so, I closed the claim.

Five days after the lightning strike, the rain paused long enough for us to do some yard work. Within minutes of each other, I found a shingle in the back yard while my husband found one in the front. The next morning, I reopened the claim.

Seven days after the strike, a roofer came to give us an estimate. After climbing on the roof and inspecting the damage, he knocked on my door and said, “Ma’am, are you sure you don’t have any damage inside?”

“No.” I said.

“Well ma’am, are you sure there isn’t water upstairs or ceiling falling down up there?”

Again I replied “No” all the while thinking I would know if my roof was caving in so why do you keep asking.

Then, the roofer literally scratched his head and said, “Well, I don’t understand it, but you shouldn’t have a ceiling inside and in fact, I’m not sure why your house didn’t burn down.”

The next day, the roofer came with his team and fixed the roof. Once again, he rang the doorbell. This time he had two pieces of plywood in his hand.

“Ma’am” he said, “This is where the lightning entered the house.”




“This is where it exited.”





“I still don’t understand why you have a house.” Then this roofer, who is not a Christian, said this, “The only way I can explain it is G-d”

To which I replied, “Yes sir, G-d’s favor, prayer and His blood. Our house is marked for Him”


The logistics of the hit: there were two large holes in the top of the roof. The house did not catch fire. Not only that, but it rained for six days after the holes were there. No rain came through our roof (except for the roof vent which caused no damage). The roofer even crawled into the attic space and inspected the insulation. Nothing was wet.

On a major road near our home, on the same night our house was hit by lightning, two businesses were also hit. Both of them burned to the ground.

G-d instructed me to mark our house with His word. He led me to the discovery of the Mezuzah. We obeyed and He honored His covenant with us.

Until next time…Shalom!