How O.J. Simpson’s Slow-Speed Chase Helped Me Make it to Shabbat Before Sundown

Twenty-eight years ago, on June 17, I was living in the Venice canals area and waiting for my friend Ken to pick me up to go to Chabad Westwood for Shabbat. Like most of the country on that day, I was riveted to the television, watching the news that O.J. Simpson was a fugitive and was involved in a slow-speed chase of 20 police cars following him. The chase was along the 405 Freeway from Orange county going north toward West Los Angeles. This news was so massive that game five of the NBA championship finals was interrupted and stopped. The media showed that the freeway was mostly empty because everyone had pulled over to the side to watch this slow speed chase.

When my friend Ken finally arrived to my house, we were a little bit behind schedule in trying to make it to Shabbat services before sundown. Normally we would take surface streets all the way from Venice to Westwood because of Friday rush hour traffic. Ken originally thought that was the way we would go, but he was not aware of the side benefit of this national spectacle that was playing out on the 405 and national TV.

I told Ken that we were not going to take surface streets, that instead we would take the 10 West to the 405 North. He said, “Are you crazy? That will make us very late because there’s bumper to bumper traffic going that direction on both of those highways normally.” But these weren’t normal times. I knew because I was watching television and what the newscasters were saying, that the freeways were wide open. There was no traffic at all.

Sure enough, the 10 was completely empty, and as soon as we transitioned to the 405 north, we saw the spectators that were on the sideline of the freeway. It was absolutely surreal because people were on the sidelines watching a famous fugitive on a slow-speed chase, just like football fans used to watch from the sidelines as Simpson ran with a football into the end zone for a touchdown.

As soon as we got on to the 405 North I told Ken that we were way ahead of schedule, and to keep moving but very slowly in the right lane. As chance and great timing had it, the slow-speed chase was approaching us from behind. What we witnessed was incredible. With the sun coming down, and the sirens blasting away, and the lights from the police cars flashing about, they rolled right by us. I only wish I had a camera to memorialize that moment.

Fortunately, I was able to source a screenshot of a CNN video of the chase in which our vehicle appears. It was easy to spot our vehicle because Ken had an old post office Jeep that he had painted army green. It’s hard to make out on the screenshot, but it’s definitely us because this portion of the video is between the 10 freeway and the Sunset exit, exactly where we were.

As soon as the chase caravan passed us, they took the Sunset exit. As for us, we exited Wilshire to get to Chabad of Westwood to make it in plenty of time before sundown. We had a great story to tell at the Shabbat table that evening.

Sometimes, HaShem sometimes works in mysterious ways. If He can part the Red Sea, he can certainly part LA traffic.