When congregants arrived at Chabad-Lubavitch of Ft. Lauderdale's synagogue for Shabbat services this past Saturday, they found themselves in the dark.
Hours earlier a 165-ton crane crashed onto the mikvah building a few doors away from the shul, leaving the entire block without power. That would be repaired by late afternoon, but the severe structural damage to a magnificent mikveh building completed only a year and a half earlier is another story.
More than one million dollars went into the mikveh, with customized crystal chandeliers and hand painted art on the walls, making it one of the most beautiful mikvehs anywhere.
But Rabbi Moshe Meir Lipszyc, director of Chabad of Ft. Lauderdale, is looking at the upside of a situation that he says, might have been much worse. I'm just grateful that no one was hurt.”
Blown by winds from Tropical Storm Barry, the crane from a neighboring construction site, fell from a height of 300 feet at around 4 a.m. "Thank G-d it happened at a time when no one was in the building, he says.
And in another serendipitous matter, he notes, "The Torah reading on this particular Shabbat was about Moses instructing Aron in the lighting of the Temples menorah lights.
"The shul was dark,” says Rabbi Lipszyc, “which made us appreciate every one of the congregants as a flame, illuminating the shul.
Even with insurance which is expected to cover much of the reconstruction, "there's always a shortfall," says Rabbi Lipszyc. Still, he surprised reporters when he announced Rosh Hashana as his target date for reopening the mikvah.
"They say it's unrealistic, but so many people depend on it, that I feel we must move quickly."
The building, which houses a men's mikvah, a gym and a steam room, has the only women's mikvah in all of east Ft. Lauderdale.
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