The trail was treacherous, the sun brutal, our water was finished, and one slip would mean plunging into the valley below. Were our reserves of emunah enough to propel us forward?

In my work as a personal injury lawyer in New York, I’ve dealt with many clients who have been seriously hurt while engaged in fun activities. Jumping on a trampoline, bicycling, playing ball, even bowling. But I never thought such a thing would happen to me.

I’m generally a cautious person, and my work with victims of injury has taught me to take even more precautions than the average person. For instance, when I cross the street at an intersection, I’m always on the lookout for cars turning left, as I know that most car accidents involving pedestrians happen when a driver who is turning left looks straight ahead to ensure that there are no oncoming cars, instead of looking left to ensure that there are no pedestrians in his way.

Along with practicing law, I write a blog called Emuna Daily (www.emunadaily.com). Back in 2008, after reading a sefer about emunah that I found life changing, I began emailing inspirational thoughts about emunah and related topics to some relatives and friends, as I felt that discussing these topics with others would reinforce to me their importance and help me internalize them. With time, these emails grew into a website from which I send out short daily posts to a few thousand followers, most of whom do not know me personally and might be surprised to learn that I am a lawyer by occupation.

A couple of years ago, I flew with my family to Eretz Yisrael to spend Yom Kippur and Succos with my sister and brother-in-law, Amy and Dov, who live in Efrat. Yom Kippur was on Wednesday, and the following Friday we went on a hike at Nachal Og, in the Judean Desert. I, my wife Rina, and our children Jaron (14), Keren (12), and Samara (8) were joined by Dov and his sons Uri (23), Dovid (21), and Gabi (19).

When I googled Nachal Og before the hike, I saw that it had received very high ratings. The comments suggested that it is a two- to two-and-a-half-hour hike, great for families, and appropriate for kids ages six and up. The only word of caution was that six-year-olds might need a little help with the ladder at the end, which consists of many rungs against the mountain. I saw a picture of the ladder, but I didn’t think it would pose any problem for Samara.

We each took a small bottle of water, in addition to the six 1.5-liter bottles we brought along for the nine of us, which we figured was more than enough for a two-and-a-half-hour hike, even considering that the trail was completely dry, with no natural sources of water. We left Efrat at about 10 a.m., planning to be back before 2 p.m., since Dov had a work call scheduled and we all needed time to get ready for Shabbos, which would come in at 6:20.

We got a little lost on the way, as Nachal Og is huge and the GPS wasn’t taking us to the place where the hike is supposed to begin. We pulled over in a parking lot at the side of a road, and when a police officer pulled up beside us, we asked him how to get to the Nachal Og hiking trail. He pointed us in the right direction, but added that it wasn’t the best day for hiking, since it was quite hot. (The temperature was supposed to reach the low 90s, about 33°C.) We didn’t think it was a problem, though, as it was still early in the day and not too hot, and we were planning to be out for only a couple of hours.