Syracuse-With a flashlight in hand, Rabbi Irvin Beigel walked on soot-covered floors to survey damages to his spiritual home yesterday, four days since flames engulfed Temple Beth El and sparked a federal investigation.

"Sure, everybody's distressed by this, but we are focusing on what needs to be done," said Beigel, who served at Brentwood Jewish Center and East Meadow Jewish Center for four years apiece in the 1970s and 1980s. "People are pulling together."

The incident came on the first day of Sukkot, a weeklong observance of the 40 years that Biblical Jews wandered through desert after their exodus from bondage in Egypt. As a man of faith, Beigel said, he found that the fire has allowed the congregation to recall that the source of their blessings is their God.