Saved on a Nepal Mountain Road, and a Mom Who Twice Had Triplets: Two Extraordinary Chanukah Miracles

The Israeli Traveler Who Survived a Bus Rollover in Nepal

When Hadassah Kochavi set out for a trip to Nepal, she never imagined it would turn her life upside down. For ten days, she trekked one of the country’s most beautiful regions, Langtang—an area of frozen lakes and pastoral mountains. On the way back from the trek, she headed to Kathmandu. "Unfortunately we couldn’t find a jeep, and we took a bus. It’s a long, very bumpy ride, and halfway through—the bus lost its brakes."

It was a severe crash that claimed the lives of several people who were on the bus with her.

"The bus was packed with people," Kochavi recalls. "People were even sitting on the roof, and at a certain point there was already a strong smell of burning brakes. The bus rolled over—luckily to the side and not into the ravine—and I lost consciousness."

A friend who was traveling with her was lightly injured and shouted to the rescue teams who arrived to evacuate her to the hospital. "He says he saw me lying on the side, unconscious, and my scalp had been torn. A small truck came, and they evacuated me."

At the hospital, Hadassah was diagnosed with fractures in her spine and neck. She wasn’t allowed to move, but when she suddenly heard, right by her bed, the voice of a woman speaking Hebrew—she couldn’t help it and raised her hand. It turned out to be Chani Lifshitz, the Chabad emissary in Kathmandu, Nepal.

She went through a difficult rehabilitation process, but today, Hadassah says, "I swim, I run, I hike a lot, I work out, and every morning I bless the miracle that happened to me." She sums it up: "There are miracles, and if I was given another chance, I need to take it big."

The Religious Mom Who Gave Birth to Two Sets of Triplets

A woman named Dorit Sherman gave birth to the first set of triplets in her life about 19 years ago.

In an interview with the site 'Srugim,' she tells her remarkable story and begins by saying that the doctors gave her and her husband no chance at all. "Our starting point was below zero—they gave us no chance of having children," she says. "And Baruch Hashem, today we are the parents of six healthy, whole children. We went through a tough journey."

As a young couple who married young (Dorit was just 20), they never imagined they’d have trouble having kids. "Like everyone else, we had all the hopes of becoming parents. And so a month goes by, another month, and we see it isn’t happening the natural, usual way. Then we decided to go to a doctor and identify the source of the problem.

"On one occasion, when we came for a very, very significant test, Noam—my husband—and I sat across from the doctor. He had already reviewed all the documents and the medical file, and his message was blunt: 'There’s no chance. You won’t have children.' I was 21; Noam was 26. That was our starting point. And it was very hard, because my dream was to be a mother. What could be more natural and simple than that? There were many moments of collapse, of despair, of tears—and a lot of envy."

At first they lived in a small community where everyone knew everyone, but then came the thought of moving someplace a little more "open," that would feel a bit different. "Along with moving, we also decided to look into adoption," Dorit says. "There were constant prayers for children of our own, but we also went through all the adoption screenings. We felt we would merit becoming parents, and we let Hashem do His part."

Fertility treatments were ongoing that whole time, even as the adoption process moved forward. Each treatment ended in a fresh crash and disappointment—but alongside that were many prayers. Before the sixth IVF treatment, a week before Rosh Hashanah, her husband Noam traveled to Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk—and at his gravesite he asked explicitly for triplets. "I didn’t come all this way for one child or two," were his words.

At that point they decided to switch hospitals, after the doctor told them they had one final IVF left to try.

And Baruch Hashem—this time it worked.

"At the first ultrasound we saw that three embryos had implanted," Dorit recounts, excited. "For us, it was overwhelming joy. The doctors recommended we reduce the number of embryos and sent all the 'lowering voices' to persuade us—and it really was a complicated dilemma: the chance versus the risk."

At that stage they sought the counsel of Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu (of blessed memory). "He gave a blessing and ruled that it all depends on the mother’s will—and I was very determined, because we had gone six years with no children. I began strict bed rest, lying down. It was a tough period. On one hand, we kept hearing from doctors, 'You’re not normal—why do you need this?' They frightened us with every possible warning. By Hashem’s kindness, I gave birth at the beginning of the ninth month, week 36—to a healthy, complete set of triplets."

After that abundance—they wanted more. When the kids were a little older, they decided to go for another round of IVF, and they conceived on the first try—again with... triplets. "When the older triplets were in first grade, the younger triplets were born." What are the odds? According to Dorit, their children—who brought a different kind of blessing and abundance into their lives—are children of tears and unceasing prayers for six years, and this is the result.