7 hours ago

Missing 4-Year-Old Found Alive After Letter Purchased in Children’s Sefer Torah

In what many are describing as an extraordinary Miracle, 4-year-old Yuval Kogan, who had been missing for more than 24 hours after disappearing during a family outing near Ashkelon’s Hofit Beach, was found alive and well just moments after the Rebbe’s Shluchim in Ashkelon purchased a letter on his behalf in the Children’s Sefer Torah, affixed new mezuzos in his family’s home, and recited the Twelve Pesukim with his siblings • Full Story

Yuval disappeared on Thursday afternoon while spending the day at the beach with his father and two older sisters. After briefly losing sight of the young boy for just a few minutes, his father realized he had vanished into the sand dunes and dense vegetation.

An unprecedented search operation was immediately launched, involving hundreds of police officers, Border Police personnel, Shin Bet agents, rescue organizations, volunteers, drones, helicopters, mounted search teams, and countless civilians, as the entire country followed the desperate effort to locate the child.

Throughout the ordeal, Yuval’s mother, pediatrician Dr. Dina Kogan, pleaded with the public to assist in the search, saying her son was in immediate danger and urging the entire nation to daven and help locate him.

On Friday, shortly before the dramatic discovery, the Rebbe’s Shluchim in Ashkelon purchased a letter for Yuval in the Children’s Sefer Torah, following the Rebbe’s well-known campaign encouraging every Jewish child to acquire a letter in the special Sefer Torah.

At the same time, Rabbi Moshe Peles, one of the Rebbe’s Shluchim in Ashkelon, visited the family’s home. After checking the home’s mezuzos, he discovered that several doorways were missing mezuzos. New mezuzos were immediately affixed, after which Rabbi Peles gathered Yuval’s sisters together with friends and neighbors to recite the Twelve Pesukim instituted by the Rebbe Melech HaMoshiach.

Moments later, the phone rang. Yuval had been found alive!

The young boy was discovered beneath a tree several kilometers from where he had disappeared after a volunteer searcher, who later said he had accidentally taken the wrong route while driving toward Nitzanim Beach, spotted him standing quietly in the dunes. Despite spending more than a full day alone outdoors, Yuval was found conscious and in stable condition before being reunited with his relieved family.

Speaking emotionally afterward, Rabbi Peles said:

“I’m shaking with excitement. You don’t understand what an open miracle of the Rebbe this is. I just left the child’s home after taking their mezuzos to be checked and bringing replacement mezuzos for the doorways that were missing them. We put up the new mezuzos, gathered his sisters together with friends and neighbors, and recited the Twelve Pesukim. Not even thirty seconds passed before we received the phone call: ‘The child has been found!’ It was an open miracle of the Rebbe.”

Yuval’s parents later summed up the ordeal with simple but heartfelt words:

“Hashem performed a great miracle for us.”

Rabbi Peles: