You Won’t Believe the Miracles This Hostage Experienced in Gaza

Omer Shem Tov was only 21 years old when he was abducted from the Nova Music Festival on October 7. As Hamas terrorists murdered innocent concertgoers and launched their assault on surrounding kibbutzim – resulting in the tragic deaths of over 1,200 people – Omer was captured with his friends Maya and Itay Regev.

While Maya and Itay were released in November of 2023, Omer suffered in Hamas captivity for over 505 days, spending much of his time in solitary confinement. His captors would torment him by eating in front of him. He was in apartments at first, and would be transferred to different places, dressed as a Muslim woman as a disguise to throw off the IDF

At one point, he was put in a bucket and lowered into a tunnel. He was deep in the ground, in a closed cell, for 50 days, where he was starved and only had a small flashlight to illuminate his surroundings.  On the 50^th day, he cried out to Hashem to rescue him.

“I screamed to God to get me out of there because I couldn’t take it anymore,” he said to an audience in Herzilya, according to AllIsrael.

This past February, Omer was finally released in a ceasefire deal exchange alongside Eliya Cohen and Omer Wenkert. Now, he’s talking about the miracles he experienced while in captivity, which are being told over in the news and synagogues around the world.

Rabbi Ruvi New of the Boca Beach Chabad told one such story. The rabbi went to a mission to Israel within a couple weeks of October 7. He met Omer’s mom, Shelly, they discussed the situation. Rabbi New at some point later had an event in Boca and he called Shelly, and she spoke over the phone to the congregation.

During the time her son was in captivity, Shelly decided to start keeping Shabbat the weekend of Feb 10, 2024, when we read the Torah portion Mishpatim. One year later, during the weekend of that same Torah portion, Omer was finally released.

Shelly and Malachi, Omer’s dad, told Israeli TV station Channel 13 News that while trapped in the tunnels, Omer had also started keeping Shabbat – and studying Torah. He had a bottle of grape juice; he made kiddush on that same bottle for six months.

When Omer was finally released, he revealed how he had read the weekly d’var Torah portion in the Chabad publication Dvar Malchut. Hamas terrorists would sometimes give him things to read that IDF soldiers would leave behind in Gaza – this booklet was one of them. According to Chabad.org, Dvar Malchut contains 250 pages of Torah commentary from the Rambam, Rashi, and other scholars, as well as a maamar from Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, the Rebbe. Omer had a picture of the Rebbe on his bedroom wall before he was kidnapped. He read the booklet over and over because it gave him the strength to continue.

Rabbi New said the booklet was for the Torah portion Parsha Va’eria, where Hashem said to Moshe, “I am God. I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob only as El Shadai [‘God Almighty’]; I was not manifest to them by My Name God… I have also heard the Israelites’ groaning, complaining that the Egyptians are enslaving them, and I have recalled My covenant. Therefore, convey to the Israelites: ‘I am God. I will free you from the oppression of the Egyptians, rescue you from their servitude, and redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great chastisements.”

Omer held onto these words; they gave him hope.

On February 22, Omer was released in the final group of hostages for the first phase of the ceasefire; Omer Wenkert and Eliya Cohen were released as well.

A week later, Omer was standing in the White House with President Trump, the most powerful man in the world, who honored him and the other hostages. Omer pleaded to President Trump to bring home the rest of the hostages home. It was just like how Yosef was in the dungeons in Egypt doomed for death one minute, and the next, he was in front of Pharoah, the most powerful man in the world at the time, and rose to power, reuniting with his family and helping the Jewish people.

Though the world has turned upside down since October 7, Omer Shem Tov’s story is a reminder that Hashem is there for us, carrying out miracles when we need them the most. Ultimately, He will redeem us – just like He did Omer.

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