Shelly Shem Tov, whose son Omer who was kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, and is still being held in the Gaza Strip, revealed on Saturday night that her son began observing the Sabbath in captivity.
“He was kidnapped with Maya and Itay Regev,” she told Radio Kol Chai, referring to the two siblings who were among the more than 100 hostages released during a ceasefire in November 2023.
“One of the stories [about Omer] that we heard from Itay … was that they talked [in captivity] about how they missed Shabbat dinners with the family. Two days later they miraculously received a small bottle of grape juice. Looking at each other, they said: ‘Hidden are God’s ways’,” Shem Tov related.
Speaking recently to an audience at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, Shem Tov noted that since Omer had recited the Shabbat Kiddush at home since he was a young boy. “So he knows the Kiddush by heart. When Friday arrived they would take some salted pretzels, place a piece of toilet paper on their heads [as a yarmulke substitute] and recite the blessings,” she said.
During his captivity, his Shabbat observance had gone beyond reciting Kiddush, she shared.
She had asked Itay, “Okay, but how complicated can it be [in captivity]? How can he not observe the Shabbat?” she said. He told her that every day at 5 p.m. the power would go out, and the hostages received flashlights. “On Shabbat, he didn’t turn on his flashlight and remained in the darkness,” she said.
“I always say: They took away his freedom but they can’t take away his faith. His faith is what enables him to survive in those inhumane conditions in captivity,” she added.
Speaking to Radio Kol Chai, she 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.”
She too had “grown spiritually stronger” over the past year, she said.
“I observe the Shabbat and have connected with the haredi [ultra-Orthodox] community in an unusual way,” she added.
Regarding recent reports about another hostage deal on the horizon, Shem Tov said, “It’s a roller-coaster. On the one hand very strong emotions of hope, but on the other a great fear that maybe it won’t go through.”
Every parent knows what it feels like when their child is lost even for a few minutes, she added.
“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.
About 100 hostages remain in captivity in Gaza, and it is not known with certainty how many are still alive. On Oct. 7, 2023, the Hamas terrorist organization carried out the deadliest single-day attack in the Jewish state’s history, murdering roughly 1,200 people in Israeli communities along the Gaza border and kidnapping 251 more into Gaza.
