Fight Or Flight On The Flight
Several years ago, I read a news account of a spectacular rescue. A family was boating offshore when a young child fell overboard. As the father prepared to dive into the water to pull his child to safety, his family screamed. A great white shark was moving rapidly towards the little one. The father froze, fearing for his own life as well as that of his child. He remained on the boat. The shark rushed forward, its dorsal fin indicating that it was huge.
Just then, a pod of dolphins appeared. They formed a circle around the panicked child and began swimming in formation around her. The circling dolphins moved faster and faster and there was no way that the shark could move in for the kill. The dolphins began tightening the circle, gently nudging the child towards the boat where the father, by this time, had recovered enough to pull the child into the boat just as one of the dolphins broke from the circle and rammed the predator with its snout so hard that it swam away, ultimately saving the child. The dolphins departed, and the family was ecstatic.
The news reporter asked the father if he had any reflections about what had occurred. He exclaimed “I cannot get over how smart those dolphins are. They saved my child! Real smart animals. I thank those dolphins for showing up. They get all the credit.”
As I read and re-read the article, I also froze for a moment. I was not traumatized the way the father was as he stood watching the shark close in. I froze with a different type of shock. Was the miraculous nature of the event aptly summed up as a lesson about dolphin intelligence? Surely the father was missing the point, that the lesson was about a manifest miracle. Clearly, the entire incident was orchestrated from Above. The child falling into the water just as the great white shark appeared; the school of dolphins magically appearing at just the right moment: all of these “coincidences” suggest something miraculous at work, just as the storm-stricken crew of Yonah’s ship during his ill-fated sea crossing could see the handiwork of Shamayim. Isn’t it similarly obvious that the yad Hashem was equally at play with this family?
Quite often a person experiencing trauma freezes, and following the event his mind struggles to infuse his ruminations about the event with thoughts of Hashem. When the trauma is abated or the tragedy averted, many people naturally look heavenward, thanking G-d, praising Him. When our brain “unfreezes” after the trauma and the all-clear signal is given, suddenly we open up with thoughts of thanksgiving and our relief is expressed as gratitude.
As we reflect now on the Dubai airline near-tragedy, there’s no doubt there were many heroes, and they were our fellow Jews, our brothers and sisters. They accomplished what few ever managed to accomplish on a plane that was bound for horror and calamity. We celebrate with them and for them! They averted a catastrophe, and for the moment, the world press eased its invective and hatred against the Jewish people to marvel at the courage and the ingenuity of the passengers, who did not remain frozen but instead mobilized and took action. We cannot overlook the obvious Yad Hashem here. The entire event, its timing, sequence, and the thoroughness of how the choreography unfolded point to Divine oversight and planning. I believe that those who waited to greet the passengers at Ben Gurion Airport felt this as they sang and danced to chants like Od Avinu Chai and other songs.
Dolphins are smart creatures. Jews can be smart creatures too. Our success and our survival, though, are the handiwork of Heaven, always and in all ways. As we declared Friday morning at the close of Hoshanos: Ana Hashem Hoshana v’Hoshiah Na, Avinu Atah—Please Hashem, please save us, please rescue us, for You are our Father. Amen.
Rabbi Dr. Dovid Fox is a forensic and clinical psychologist, and director of Chai Lifeline Crisis Services. To contact Chai Lifeline’s 24-hour crisis helpline, call 855-3-CRISIS or email [email protected]. Learn more at ChaiLifeline.org/crisis.
