Each year, Yom HaZikaron, 4 Iyar, precedes Yom HaAtzmaut by one day, during which Jews transition from sorrow and remembrance to joy. Omer Shem Tov, held hostage for 505 days, and unsure if, or when, he would be released, had little preparation for his own transition. He experienced loss, brutality, and solitary confinement; his body, but not spirit, languished. This suddenly morphed into a joyful reunion with his loved ones and the adjustment cannot have been easy. Nevertheless, on March 19, at a gathering set up by the campus organization Hillel, at Congregation Aderet El in Manhattan, Shem Tov appeared at ease and calm. Gratitude, a midah that he cultivated during his captivity and sustains him today, may explain his serenity.
“I am Omer Shem Tov and I am a free man,” he declared. Between October 7, 2023 and February 22, 2025, when he was released, his hardships were offset by his gratitude for multiple miracles. During those 505 days, he said Modeh Ani upon awakening and prayed to Hashem, speaking to Him directly, one on one, and asking His help to survive. Now, after daily prayers, Shem Tov also speaks to Hashem. “I leave my tefillin on and I just, I talk with G-d. And I ask him to give me strength and light so whenever I talk with someone else, he could absorb some of that light and that strength.”
As Shem Tov publicly expresses his infinite gratitude to Hashem, he also recalls people like Ori Danino, who, once safe, ran back into danger to protect him, and Maya and Itay Regev. Although the three were captured together, the Regevs were released earlier. Danino was held hostage and then brutally murdered. Shem Tov considers Danino his “guardian angel,” who watched over and protected him until his deliverance by Hashem.
There are multiple open miracles that Shem Tov cited, and in retrospect, even moments of humor. Terrorists moved hostages frequently and at one point, when Shem Tov changed apartments, he met Eliya Cohen, who was ultimately released with him. Shem Tov could hear IDF bombing and couldn’t sit still, so he cleaned the apartment, which suddenly started to shake. A window shattered; glass flew everywhere, and cut him. A terrorist, covered in dust, entered and told them that theirs was the sole building, among 10 others, that was not destroyed. Shem Tov thought, “But I just cleaned it…and I had to do it all over again!” The humor wasn’t lost. Similarly, a terrorist ordered him returned to the cell, where, for 50 solitary days, he sat in pitch darkness, filthy, starving – but the tunnel housing that cell was also bombed.
When the IDF left the area, terrorists discovered Hebrew books, among them Dvar Malchut (Chabad). Shem Tov, who wanted it, cooked and cleaned for his captors in exchange for the portion of the sefer (i.e., Parshat Miketz) that contained the perush on Yosef, his release from prison and rise to Viceroy. “So, for me, it’s like a straight sign from G-d that I’m going to come out of the pit and I’m going to be the vice royal [sic] of the hostages” he quipped.
In closing, Shem Tov thanked the IDF, the American troops, and “…a huge thank you is to G-d himself…that gave me the opportunity again to stand here alive, free, being able to walk around, to experience life again…I’m Omer Shem Tov and I’m a free man!”