Hostage Begins Keeping Shabbat in Captivity: “Bringing Light from the Darkness”
Omer Shem-Tov was a typical 20-year-old Israeli working as a waiter in a restaurant in Herzliya. He was not religious, so when a music festival was held on Shabbat Simchat Torah, Omer decided to dance with his friends. He drove his car to Re’im to attend the Nova Festival, and the following day, rockets began to fall as Hamas terrorists flew across the border in paragliders. Omer escaped in his car, phoning his parents as he drove. He described driving past dead bodies as bullets flew around him.
Photo via Instagram
At one point, he realized that his two best friends, siblings Maya and Itai Regev, had been left behind. Omer went back to find them. Maya and Itai were surrounded and shot in the legs by terrorists but managed to survive, captured along with Omer. Maya and Itai were released in November. They were with him in captivity, but Omer’s whereabouts are unknown.
In an interview with Radio Kol Chai radioOmer’s mother, Shelly gave a remarkable testimony about her son.
“One of the stories we heard from Itai Regev was that they talked about how they missed having Shabbat meals with the family. Two days later, by some miracle, they received a small bottle of grape juice.”
“They looked at each other and said, ‘God’s ways are hidden.’ Since Omer was a little boy, he’s been making Kiddush at home, so he knows the Kiddush by heart. When Friday came, they took some salted pretzels, put a piece of toilet paper on their heads [as a yarmulke substitute], made Kiddush, and recited the blessings.”
“Omer started keeping Shabbat in captivity,” Shelly said. “Every day, starting at five o’clock, there was a power outage, and they received flashlights. But Omer didn’t turn on the flashlight on Shabbat and stayed in the darkness.”
“I always say: they took his freedom, but they can’t take his faith. His faith allows him to survive the inhuman conditions he’s in.”
Speaking to Radio Kol Chai, Shelly said that she had not received a sign of life from Omer since Itay and Maya’s return, “but we are confident he will persevere and will return to us soon.”
Shelly stated that she had “grown spiritually stronger” over the past year.
“I observe the Shabbat and have connected with the Haredi [ultra-Orthodox] community in an unusual way,” she added.
Itay told Omer’s parents that he did not let one Friday night pass in captivity without reciting the kiddush. Omer rationed his food from the week to complete this weekly tradition, saving a bit from the quarter of pita bread (60 calories) he was given daily for use on Shabbat.
His family told the media that Omer has coeliac disease, making it painful for him to eat wheat. He was forcing himself to eat a quarter of a pita daily to survive. It has now been over 443 days since Omer was taken captive.
“We don’t count days, but minutes. Omer and the rest of the hostages have not been with us for more than half a million minutes,” she said.
“I’m so proud about my son,” his mother, Shelly, told J-Post. “They took his freedom, but they couldn’t take his faith, his soul,” Shelly said. “And for me, I know that my son is strong. He has faith. He knows that he’s waiting, that people, the soldiers will come to take him back home. And we are waiting, and we are praying every day that this miracle will happen.”
Omer’s story is reminiscent of a quote by the Hebrew writer Achad ha-Am, who once said that more than the Jewish people kept the Sabbath, the Sabbath kept the Jewish people.
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