October 7th Film: Connecting Through Tragedy

[Music] I don't remember what pictures it show me but they pulled out the phone and showed me two pictures sassy is just one example of a selfless individual a choic is that we don't understand a suia parish in our lives that we don't understand remember there were people in these cars every action you bring bring into this world creates the light then why can't I myself identify as a what am I running from [Music] [Applause] one of my big passions is to take people and specifically my boys of yiva to various places around the world and try to connect them with our history and to show them the messages of Courage the stories of real people that did the most amazing things at took my boys down south to witness the scene of what happened on October 7th on the morning of sim join me on a journey of so we could try to relive the experience the which is also gar in Sanhedrin tells us the following there was a broken woman who lived in the same neighborhood as re Gamel and this broken woman had a young child and this young child unfortunately suddenly died at a very young age and every night this woman would cry and you would be able to hear her wailings and her emotions how she cried and she cried for a dear child that left the world and at that same time says the med says the gamorra RAB gam would also cry explains the medish an incredible idea that upon hearing the sobs of this woman of the losing her child RAB gam would cry but why did he cry RAB G cried for the MD that's why he cried that says the tells us he cried so intensely his eyelashes fell out what's Curious to understand is why did r g cry specifically about the because he heard this woman crying about her child R amongst many others that say the same idea in different ways RAB gam understood the Shish he understood the root for all suffering of clol throughout all of the years and all of the times that clol had been pained and been targeted he understood that the the root for all suffering is the bdash the fact that we don't have a BD that there's a the fact every single day that we that is the source of all of the says the therefore when he heard this woman crying he understood of course she has her individual pain but itively where does it come from the the lack of the that we are lacking in our lives on the day of s you're almost able to sense that which we say in the K of for the rejoicing of her [Music] enemies who laughed at her [Music] destruction and the suffering of her Freeborn son so Noble so [Music] pure for the voice of those who abused her when her corpses fell thick and fast Al and the tumult of her revealers within the courtyard of our Sanctuary we saw that come true on the day of such a terrible day for cloud yal first responder yal Khan was one of the very first people to leave yalim and drive down south he left his wife and his children like so many other dedicated volunteers and went right into a war zone hearing those Sirens uh that morning I was just warart no one expected for what had happened and we started Ding and we reached Buras krishma and then I get this rare message from the headquarters um was any ambulance driver that is close to the base should come immediately now I am an ambulance driver so I right away left sh and I made my way to the headquarters with my Talis you know the full Jewish look the truth is none of us really understood fully what was going on I was on my way personally to Yeshiva about to spend some with the boys Sirens I see the Rockets being intercepted above me and yet had no idea what was actually happening we had no idea what was about to unfold and we tried to have the best possibly could have had so yeah I'm going to leave daving I will come back probably in middle of dancing let all I know when I reached down the base they told me you're going down th and I looked at them like we have never left yalis I don't remember what pictures it show me but they pulled up a phone and showed me two pictures that were enough for me to understand something massive is [Music] happening my son s he's about to come to dance with me the ladies are coming to show I know it's not happening this time heading out of town who knows when you're coming back the only pieces of information we starting to get was through the ambulance Channel you heard from them skar you heard fear through the voice and we hearing disturbing information I couldn't understand the amount of bodies that were reporting that they're seeing in one place and one look what type of injuries and where they located and they're trapped and shooting and you hear it in the [Music] background not knowing what's going on we're like kind of thinking are we doing the right thing going down but it's something just contined pushing us you're driving down K decide you're going you're going 40 minutes driving down there was nothing more meaningful to say that c of on driving down not knowing what we will be we knew we were're not going to be able to see it later on so let's have the time we barely managed to finish that the roads were completely completely empty it was a very weird feeling then we reached the skyline on the number three road we see like a war zone ahead of us the only way to really describe the events that happened is the r intervening in the running of the world and sending us a very clear message the day will go down as one of the worst terrorist attacks ever in history this is an NBC News special report we have breaking news out of Israel this morning where Hamas has launched a surprise attack within Israel's borders overnight over a thousand Hamas terrorists enter Israel from over 30 breached points the massive wall that separates Israel and Gaza with sophisticated electronic devices able to stop anyone from tampering with it but all of a sudden able to be knocked down Hamas motorbikes and trucks seemed no match compared to the Israeli Army's tanks and armored vehicles Israel was shaken to the core the unimaginable happened the felt weak no confidence in their survival 1,400 people murdered in the most barbaric manner over 5,500 wounded many of them seriously 242 hostages taken into Gaza including children and Holocaust Survivors [Music] let's start the Journey of looking at some of the heroes that stood up with so much courage we went to stot to visit what's left of the police station and talk about the story of RAB Kim Sassi a Rob in stot who had just recently built a brand new kahila and was so excited to be able to spend Simas with his kahila he was also part of kitot konut which is the rapid response security team here in and an active volunteer for Sol United at Sol now once he realized on morning that the country and specifically his town over here was under attack he took his gun he took his bulletproof vest and bulletproof helmet and he started his [Music] motorbike and he arrived at a bus stop very close to this police station possibly it was the bus stop over there he was told that's where he needs to be to try and help someone that got injured and he finds at the bus stop three policemen one of the commanders of the sterup police was shot and needed him so he tried to do whatever he could with whatever material he had with him and he notices on the other side of the road he notices a policeman lying that was actually shot by a Hamas sniper Through the Windows was shooting at anyone that would come past rabim SII saw that this policeman was still alive he saw he was alive he said to the other policemen that were there he said listen I need to get this guy he's alive I can save him I can help him please I'm asking you to keep shooting I'm going to run over if you as long as you keep shooting no one's going to shoot out the window no one's going to put their head out the window cuz they hear the shooting directed at them don't stop shooting until I gather the police person that needs help and bring him back to safety cover me don't stop shooting until I return He says for the next few moments he will never forget in his entire lifetime seconds after darting across the street he reaches the policeman the sniper shoots him in the knee a moment later he was shot in the hand and the shrap no cut into his jaw he was shot twice in his head and his helmet protected him from the bullets that shot at his head ignoring the excruciating pain that he was in at that time he threw himself over the policeman shielding him the policeman under him from any of the bullets that may come from the snipers within the building look at the courage these people had they had to make split-second decisions without any time to think and they did what was right and he dragged the policeman to a dumpster behind the dumpster it was a safe place it was too close to the building he checked the vital signs of the policeman that he was trying to treat and saw there's very low chances of him surviving and now he turned to his jaw was gushing with blood at that time there was a little voice he said in his head telling him maybe you should start to say V and he said no I ignored that voice and I said optimistically I'm going to say to Hill him it's going to be okay for the next hour and a half Rabbi sassy was staying trapped in his spot because of the flying bullets that were going in every direction he knew he was safe where he was and he saw a shabbach officer taking cover very close to the police building behind me who promised to come and rescue the rabbi said don't worry I'm com to get you soon as it's safe as soon as the Bullet Stop I'm going to get you he threw in bottles of water drink something you'll be okay kept on talking to him and the rabbi screamed out to the shabbach of a I need bandages the Shabbat is like where am I going to get bandages from right now where can I go and he said why don't you go to the van that the terrorists arrived in go look at the back of that van you'll probably find bandages over there what was he thinking why would there be bandages in a terrorist van coming to kill people but that's what he told the Shabbat officer the Shabbat officer said you know what no problem he was able to do that it was safe for him to go he went to the van where the terrorists came out from and he managed to find tremendous amount of bandages he came out with bandages for Rabbi Sassi courtesy of Kamas and he threw them at Rabbi Sassi and at that point it was so shabas rabbi Sassi did not want to use his phone for anything that was notes but at that point he felt it wases he switched on the video of his phone and he took a video of his face to be able to know where to stop the blood from and he managed to stop the blood when the shabbach officer opened up the van that the terrorists came in and he started looking for the bandages he found a radio that radio belonged to one of the terrorists he had in his hand something so precious as a shabbach officer he was fluent in Arabic he was now able to hear where the terrorists were and where their next destination was going to be imagine how many lives he saved by knowing what was going to be their next step the process of how the Ron runs the world even within so much Sor so much pain stories of Kes hasem that we have heard so many times throughout the Holocaust who is generally attributed to rabim to rebes to sikim but yet so many of the recent heart trending stories of mesh are about yiden that are not even considered to be mitz and yet they showed us how they risked their lives to save others many of the murdered both in the towns and the ishim from the security forces were killed they could have remained home and they went straight into the danger they gave up their lives and they saved other Jews Rim Sassi is just one example of a selfless individual who put others before his own life there were so many more some of them made it but unfortunately so many of them didn't but they were selfless individuals and their courage remains forever this was a place that so many yiden lost their lives there small amount of moments and we always say that we never understand the sh's ways we don't understand why the does what he does but sometimes the fact that we don't understand why the does what he does is the answer but one thing we do know and we have a the that everything is with a and everything is precise when sh pink at and his wife and his daughter died in a car crash right before pesak 2001 the world was stunn and devastated to have lost not only Rin and Pinkus but his wife and his daughter at the same time thousands were crying bitterly at the L Pink's father I was myself from him stood up at the L the L of his son and he says the following he says when a person is delving into a sugya and you can't figure out toas so what do you do you keep on going over it again and again and you Tred to figure out any Mahal that you can in to and you know what if you can't figure out after all of that you know what you do you keep going and you go vter and you move on to the next hus Pinkus his father and his sons L held up his hand and said we don't understand I don't understand your ways a but what do we do when we hit a that we don't understand a parish in our lives that we don't understand we move on and we believe that has a and even if we don't understand it and it doesn't make any sense and it can't be in it so difficult but we recognize does everything with a 260 people 26 aamas died in this place where we're standing we've been to Poland we've been to places where we've heard the most terrible Horrors that CL had done to them and it's so hard for us sometimes to picture to feel to understand to connect the this is something that every one of you were in the country an hour and a half down the street this is what happened an hour and a half of where we were in Yeshiva on the morning of October 7th on Sim we had no idea what was going on but we felt something was wrong wherever we were in the world we felt something when I looked around at the boy faces at that specific time I saw the emotion on their face I saw that it touched them they felt it and every single one of us can also feel [Music] it before I even stopped in that intersection my back doors were opened and screaming of get them on and fast as possible don't get even off the driver's seat just head straight to the hospital you need to make it I Look Backwards and I get for people I'm talking about kind of injuries that no one prepared for people that they have to see paramedics or even doctors on scene before they can even continue to hospitals it was basically gunshots and Tates missing leams I'm not a paramedic I can't give medicines I don't have medicines not even for pain it was to make correct decisions and just get as fast as possible to hospital just to keep them alive and we're going back and forth we're not even going down into stot just to put things into context the Sola members were mainly on the outside of the kwood Sim in the festival area from the outside to the hospitals and they went backwards and forwards with such courage and then there were the people inside the kwood Sim inside the festival area they with such courage they did what they felt was the right thing to do there are currently four security guards from the Nova Festival in cap activity they could have fled they could have ran but they remained behind to save others bar sat down with his car rescued people and then returned of his own accord to the Valley of Death to save others on a fourth round he was attacked and taken captive ROM circulated and hid people he was given a chance to flee to run away but he insisted in helping others and he was taken captive atan was already on his way out of the area with the group that he rescued on his way he saw two murdered victims and he insisted in staying to make sure that they get a k is a proper burial in the middle of Theus he was abducted and he remains in Gaza agav basme Burger is currently being held captive in Gaza she's a 19-year-old girl who was kidnapped from the Nal o military base she's not a basak of girl nor did she grow up in MIM she fell captive on and it was in those horrid tunnels that she took upon herself kabalas old to mitzvas mble the Yoke of to mitzvas she doens to the best of her ability and knowledge she makes broas on the fiddle bit of food that she gets and above all she's taken upon herself Shir hostages that were with her in two different hideouts and were subsequently released all gave the same report she took upon herself to keep shabas and spends every Friday governing that her captors will not make her shabas whenas terrorists forced her into serving them in their [Music] homes she refused ref used to light fires and cooked for them on shabas I cannot set her mother begin to think of the violence and cruelty of her captors but aam is the strongest person I know and is choosing to lean on her faith and lifting all those around her aam's merious neph has generated tremendous in a family's neighborhood Inon her parents established a Sho in a area it became too small and now they're ding in the her father says she won't believe what's waiting for her as soon as she comes out she'll see it and be they're all going to come out well physically and of course emotionally intact as well just want to tell you a story about a yid called shalev that fled the Nova Festival fled the area that we are currently standing right behind shalev grew up in a very home around Ben Barak and for whatever reason he left yish gate it was in the NOA Festival on Sim October 7th when the attack happened he found a garbage can and he hid in the garbage can for hours and hours until he realized it was safe to come out as soon as he came out he couldn't believe the sight that he saw dead bodies lying everywhere and he couldn't believe I'm alive I'm alive he said later on he found the first Bas Mees that he could he took it to Hill him and he fell on the oresh and he was crying since then he's put on fill in every single day K tell us that a person could acquire his entire next World in one moment yes this was going on in erit but it had Ripple effects around the world there are many people that got affected by what they saw and what they heard on the morning of s and one such example is yui grnas a dear tal of mine who I taught over 11 years ago at some point he left yudish kite but on the morning of October 7th on S that changed his life forever life's taken me on quite a journey since uh Reby taught me in apple bounds seeing a lot of the outside world traveling a lot of outside influence ultimately leaving Yiddish Kon just really exploring myself as a person the world joining different foods different cultures different people and everything the secular world has to offer after a lot of self-discovery ended up back in London living at home very warm supportive family came to sim T morning it's about 5 6: a.m. UK time about 7:00 a.m. Israel time and for me that was a perfect time living within a k Community where not many people are out and about I can have my own time to myself sit on my balcon listen to some music it's not good joint sitting there going through my phone ended up on Twitter I see one or two articles something's going on in Israel okay it's not that every day something happens in Israel but it's not a rare occurrence either carry on scrolling and I saw one or two videos that were quite bizarre quite shocking but it still didn't didn't quite hit me that there was a major catastrophe going on carry on sitting there then I followed a few hashtags and I started seeing some really graphic footage some really disturbing footage looked down at my joint I thought maybe I smoked a bit too much I kept watching more even though I felt like I I shouldn't be watching more my system was in shock thought let me let me see in this moment what the outside world feels about this we're talking the first hour hour and a half when this attack had happened you would think the outside world maybe in a week or a month they might be their regular you know media pushed headlines you'd think within the moment there would be something sympathy and going through the comments All I'm seeing is Hitler should have finished you off the Holocaust wasn't enough Jews don't belong here and just a whole array of comments in that sort of caliber sometimes people underestimate us what can we accomplish in this generation we heard so many stories about regular people who led regular Lives who were able to step up to the plate and do something so courageous deep down every single one of us has a tremendous k a tremendous power that's hidden within us it just has to come out we just have to believe that we can bring it out and it's sad that sometimes in midst of tragedy that's when the greatest power comes out we've seen it time and time again they've tried again and again to kill us to blot us out of the world but clol have always come out on top we've always persevered we've always survived the hardest things the darkest moments there's always light it's morning I'm sitting here in a community in house and for a long time in my life I've been you know running from who I am trying to find purpose elsewhere and it sort of hit me in that moment that if the secular world still views me as a Jew they still identify me as a Jew regardless of what I've gone out and explored and what things have tasted or discovered I'm still a Jew at I call then why can't I myself identify as a Jew what am I running from within that moment it gave me a realization I've got to refocus reinspect to what I want from life and what I identify as to really figure out what that goal is what that life purpose [Music] is carried on through hug with my family my friends a lot of rumors in the community a lot of people looking at me thinking maybe I have the answers to some of the questions that they're worrying about I don't feel comfortable telling anyone any details and over I found myself really trying to push myself to connect to hug and what it used to mean to me and what it can mean to me in the future singing with the family taking part in the meals and really feeling that reconnection in my n and trying to re spark myself that this is a point that we can build from this is a point that we can grow from and I had friends and family that have been very supportive of me whichever route I've taken in life and they were of course ecstatic to hear that I was inspired and wanting to grow and they offered me a support system to go to shore with them to keep pushing forward there definitely were moments even right at the beginning I remember the first 3 weeks shabus was easy for me um I mean I love my cigarettes I love my music but it was easy for me to to wind down and switch off for 25 26 hours but the fourth week I don't know why but I just I felt it really difficult and and there were some moments where I slipped over the months and I would say it's a song by Jo come you get back you get back [Music] and those sort of messages could is what helped me keep up my inspiration even in moments where I was falling I felt like it's and there's always going to be fools in life there's always going to be moments where you slip it's just about making the trend curve stay upwards I asked yudi what would be his message to anyone that's struggling to a teenager out there that's listening what can he give him one message that's kept me going throughout my life it's actually from another rebi in the ISA that I learned with rabian he once asked me what is a Mitzvah that I love doing and what is a Mitzvah that I struggle with and my answer to that was one that I love doing is always being in BR to be grateful and one of the main ones that I struggled with over a long period of time was chabus and he posed me a question that in a scenario on chabus you pulled yourself a cup of coke you like a cigarette do you make a bro on a cup of coke I said to him no he said why not I said I don't know it just doesn't feel right and he said to me but why you Chuck everything out the window you're with Hashem in that moment he knows that you're struggling he's put a yet in you with shabas for whatever reasons it is why not thank him for that coconut moment be with him in that moment be with God in every moment of your life hashem's with you everywhere so don't turn your back on him when he's not turning your back on you people are busy talking about what type of people were here I have no idea but we know that we ping like R Maya B you're Children of the you're a child of it doesn't make a difference where they we holding it doesn't make a difference how low they fell they are brothers and sisters they're the children of the they're one of us [Music] one of the survivors of the festival over here Shel gab she heard there was a few Rockets going on ran to find a bomb shelter you can see behind you there's a bomb shelter there's another one over there there's a whole bunch over there and she went in with a crowd of about 30 people who crammed into the bomb shelter they heard gunshots they heard Arabic they couldn't understand what was going on it was getting louder and louder and she said over that the terrorists came inside the bomb shelter that she was at the back of the bomb shelter and they started just shooting at everyone and everybody fell on her and she was asked those precise moments where you were crammed into a bomb shelter had no idea what was going on and there's 30 people around you dropping dead literally on you what were you thinking of and you know what she said she said I was thinking of my parents can you imagine that is what she thought about her parents iide deal with so many parents and so often they ask what can I do for my child am I doing the right thing we underestimate as parents how much we give to our children how much they think of us and everything we do for them makes an impact you never know when it's going to be needed and when it's going to come out and she said the terrorist kept on coming back and forth back and forth inside the bumb shelter to check that everyone was actually dead 30 people for 7 hours with more than 15 dead bodies literally fallen over her and a bullet in her knee she remained inside the bum shelter it was literally geham unfolding in front of their eyes the shootings the screaming the explosions from above it was absolute chaos hours and hours of waiting with no idea what to expect it's the darkest of times and sometimes from within the darkness comes the greatest light the med tells us that Yu complained to the sh why are you doing this evil to me explains the med that responded to Yu yov I'm making your son a king in MIT why are you complaining to me why are you calling it evil asks r i don't understand it's great when the Sor is finished when everything's great and we can look back and say everything is great now but in the midst of the trouble in the midst of the sorus when things are going so bad when it's dark and it's horrible and we don't understand what's happening how are we meant to Fathom that good can ever come from it answers RAB this teaches us that even from a situation that looks so dark that looks so terrible that looks so negative we have to understand that it's part of a greater plan that the to him when [Music] says from within the streets that's when I call out to the sh when DAV was going through his hardest times he realized the Salvation was on its way and he called out TM sometimes things just go so wrong we feel that it's dark we feel the rlam has abandoned us we have to learn no it's all part of the Yeshua it's part of the Salvation the Ron has a master plan and it's very much from the darkness that we can hope to see the light he was here together with his wife and he said he remembers he was here at the festival was filming everything that was going on he noticed Rockets flying he could sense something was wrong something wasn't right all he could think about was how the music is still playing in such a situation Rockets were flying a direction the music is playing doesn't make any sense he said to his wife this could be our last moment together she said what are you talking about doesn't make any sense they passed the car and instead of running they saw that the person inside the car was sleeping and there was a good chance they was going to be [Music] killed so they knocked on the window he didn't answer they kept on knocking and knocking and knocking and eventually he woke up and they told him let's get up get up get up go away he finally woke up he and she got a message 5 days after October 7th from this person in the car to say you saved my life because you stopped and you thought about someone else which is also such an incredible thing for someone to be able to think of someone else and they kept on running and running they were saying sh the whole time [Music] they realized where their life was headed and they became religious afterwards they said they have to keep shabas that start moving on one of the stories that was set over by one of the solo members AI yudovsky who was driving injured people backwards and forwards and he had dropped off people in the hospital and there's a soldier there he'd been injured and now he's ready to go back inside he enters the back of the ambulance and they're driving this is the drive that they had done so many times backwards and forwards to the hospital back from the hospital taking injured people and all of a sudden the Special Forces Soldier rolls down the window takes out his gun and is ready to shoot and they look in the back of the ambulance and they say to him is everything okay what are you doing we've gone down this road so many times what are you doing now and he said I was here a few hours ago a terrorist shot at me from that tree right over there this is what theala members did they willingly drove into an active war zone we getk from hearing these stories and seeing the decisions that these people made that saved so many lives on the third or fourth drive down we get a young lady she was from the festival she managed to escape she got shot and long story short she managed to get to us with a tourniquet on her missing finger we didn't know it until we met drive down to the hospital um that certain kind of position hurt her and then we realized she had had another gunshot under her hand she had another bullet inside her head and she was about to give up we couldn't let her fall asleep she would fall asleep she would not wake up and I got the order to go to ashalon is closer and harder injuries but in a split of the of a thought I remember in the previous drive down that there still people who still waiting in the emergency room with tournat sitting there on the floor there was no more space I knew that she might not be taking her care of in time she might not survive and even if she would survive she would lose her entire hand in a split of decision with not asking no one I decided to continue another 7 to 10 minutes drive down to to give her a chance it's a more simple Hospital maybe she will being taken care of we never heard from her again about 4 months later we got the first Gods she's missing just uh one finger these are regular people they're First Responders they're not meant to be walking into a war zone and yet so many of them selflessly not thinking about themselves but only others and what they can do they didn't have to go nobody asked them to go but they [Music] went one specific hatala member from United atsala recalls driving down this road and seeing cars and bodies scattered all over and then he came across two officers of Special Forces lying on the ground now there are dead people everywhere they weren't able to tend to the dead people because they were so busy trying to save people that were still alive but they just couldn't bear leaving officers and Soldiers on the street that were killed because when other soldiers and other officers and other police forces would see that their own forces were killed it would demoralized them and therefore they removed them and they described seeing all the dead bodies lying on he was reminded of the [Music] words perceive that we become an object of scorn amongst the Nations we're regarded as sheep that are led to the slaughter to be killed to be destroyed to be beaten and humiliated which is what happened on this very street but despite this we will never forget the r sh we'll never forget your name Hashem hundreds of cars literally burnt scattered all over Route 232 we stopped at a specific place and we looked at those cars behind me is so many of the cars of people that were burnt many of them alive remember there were people in these cars many of them burnt to death that's what we saw the death traps that each car [Music] was we drove through Road roads uh the 232 Road the bloody Road where it was fully smoked it was like towards evening it was already very dark from the smoke and I went trying to make it through with all the fear and you feel you're in hell you feel it and you see the pictures around you you see cars you see parts of car and they're thrown everywhere still in flames and smoke and there bodies inside and we had ambulances that stopped to literally just pull out people being burned just so they will have a grave and we had bodies and parts of bodies on the road terrorists and our people and I'm trying to maneuver it between everything while all this was going on many of the kood S were being attacked in the most barbaric manners hostages were being taken children were being killed in front of their parents and parents were being slaughtered in front of their children we're in Kaza which is situated about 5 km east of Gaza behind me is Gaza it was one of the many Israeli communities that was devastated by what happened on October 7th on Sim T some of the homes covered in large bullet holes that start at the doorways and move into the living room those safe rooms of the residents that were there at the time others are reduced to nothing to Rubble some of them completely burnt blackened charred from the grenades that the terrorists threw inside while the families were still there some of the homes were so severely burned that the professionals that were brought in had to sift through the ash an inside and outside fam's belongings are all scattered all over the place in fact now 9 months later there are some of the houses that we cannot even go into cuz they're still looking for some of the places that might have pieces of bodies over there over 70 terrorists came in from right here behind me through this gate straight into the community over there in front and murdered about 67 of the residents 7 hostages were taken straight from over there where I'm looking right behind me through this gate into Gaza and they kept on coming in and out to get more and more hostages there was no one too young no one too old to slaughter it took the Israeli Army over half a day to reach the kibuts of 750 people and the fighting continued for 3 Days finding terrorists days later after Sim and the attack was so rapid that reporters said that later they came in at the end of the day or the next day and they found milk and coffee still on the side it was so quick didn't have a moment walking into a home and seeing a birthday cake meaning there was a day that the family was meant to have a s a happiness a special and joyful occasion that unfortunately was ruined in such a tragic way it all happened so quickly regular life in seconds turned into horror imagine what the hostages are going through picture their lives before and their lives right now sitting in darkness without the realization of day or night food who knows is anybody even waiting for them does anybody even know that they're there is anyone going to save them [Applause] I Bor into Yeshiva one day a father of one of the hostages El danino the father of AI I wanted the boys to hear firsthand from someone that's experiencing that weight that has a son in captivity in [Applause] [Music] Gaza we walked out of that with so much how someone can still believe so strongly in the when life is so difficult and life is so challenging AI is still in captivity and our Thrillers are with him along with all of the hostages on this very special day hundreds of terrorists swarmed into this unsuspecting Gaza border community of kibot berry in what would become the deadliest killing grounds and worst attack on a single Community residents over here had to fend for themselves for hours 101 civilians and 31 security Personnel were killed just in this kibuts alone a community of only a thousand residents and a further 30 residents and two more civilians were taken hostage by Hamas terrorists 125 homes were damaged in the community you can see behind me the devastation of what they did was as we walk from house to house we'll see that each house represented a family a family that just wanted to live a normal happy fun successful fulfilled life we walked through those homes and we saw it with our own eyes utter Devastation lives that were shattered in seconds complete and utter destruction behind me is the house where two of my cousins children Twins yanai and liel had rny hel 12 years old they lived with their great aunt and grandfather who were also murdered just my world caved in completely not knowing whether they were hostages in the Gaza Strip not knowing how they were not being able to be there I wasn't able to protect them but there was so little found of liel's body that they almost buried some of her toys instead's belongings as you can see here which perhaps had some of her blood or something on it because there was just so little left to even bury they identified her by literally sving the remnants and he said to me when I spoke to recently he said this memory will will live with me for the rest of my life but he was never really able to bury his children in a proper manner I'll never watch them grow up I'll never see them get married and I'll never see them do what no parents want to see their children do as parents we all have dreams and aspirations for our children can you imagine on that fateful day how many parents' dreams were shattered were gone there was nothing left this is where the Dentistry was in kbet Berry which turned into a mini Hospital on the morning of October 7th when people started to get injured so they took this over someone of the doctors lives across the street ran over here and they came in here to treat some of the wounded and many of the Wounded who were inside and three specific the men that you see behind me came out in order to try and fight the terrorists one was killed immediately on the street and then the terrorists came inside and killed all the people that were wounded inside I want to share with you a story about two children in Kaza Mikel a boy of 9 years old and his sister Amelia she was only six when the terrorists entered their home chaos erupted Mikel only 9 years old picks up the phone and calls hatala he reported to the hatsa member on the phone that one of his parents is lying in a pool of blood on the floor unresponsive came that Sol a member tells him go into the safe room you'll be safe over there good people will come and help you 9 years old he takes his sister Amelia 6 and they go into the Bor room but the door is just too heavy to close he says I can't close the door so the member says is there anywhere inside the room that you can hide and he says well there's a cabinet there's a closet there for he lies on one and his sister only six years old lies on the other one and for 12 hours they're on the phone they don't want to give up they're waiting and she's giving them the whole time it's going to happen someone's going to come and save you you're going to be rescued and 12 hours later the soldiers came in and they rescued both of them [Music] alive behind me is the house of our dear friend Ellie over here he was in the safe room about 11:30 they hear the terrorists coming in you hear shooting grenades start smelling smoke they obviously lighting things on fire and they're going from family to family from house to house they've got the bottom floor and now they've come upstairs to the top floor to his neighbor and he hears they're making a fight they're trying to get in and eventually he smells the smoke it's getting stronger and stronger at about 1:30 p.m. when the smoke is starting to come into into the room he's got himself his wife and his three children his wife says I can't take this anymore let's jump out the window it's two floors we'll make it we'll jump out the window he says what do you mean you can't do that there's terrorists all over the place you can't just jump so his wife with a small opening of the window she stuck out her hand and videoed outside to see if there's any terrorists hanging around on the streets brought the video back in they saw there was no one around they opened the window he jumped down first and he ran over to the parola over there a neighbor they made it up around the around the other end went upstairs his three children followed one of his children broke the leg and then his wife followed afterwards and they were all saved over there tremendous Act of Courage they kept strong they kept going and he said was an absolute [Music] nice Ruth haran from kibet bear she survived and even though many of her members of family were actually kidnapped including her great granddaughter yel and six other members of her family were all kidnapped she opened the door to her house in Bari and she saw six terrorists wearing black with a green strip on their head she said the look was petrifying they looked like they were about to kill which is of course what they were trying to do all of a sudden she has no idea why they were called by their Commander nearby to go somewhere else and they ran off this woman survived the Holocaust and she was asked was October 7th compared to the Holocaust cuz there are many people who are saying how could you compare it to the Holocaust and she said the following if a pregnant woman could have her stomach slashed open and they're burning babies in houses why is that not a holocaust that's a holocaust and she said absolutely she can't sleep at night the images for coming back to her again and again she opened the door to her home and saw outside the dead [Music] bodies an anguished yid once asked the closenberg Reba while in aitz rebba he said do you you still say you chose us as your nation and the rebba replied and he said absolutely in fact I say it now with more cavana than ever before because had I not be chosen to be n yid then I might have been a murderous German I prefer to be a suffering Jew and a cruel non-jew 80 years or more have passed Mrs via seagull who lived here in Kaza a kutnik who lived with the ideas of coexistence and equality that everyone should live together now tells everyone after I saw how they trampled Us and how they attacked us so brutally now I say it's a miracle that I am a Jew [Music] we're in the house of amihai Shindler and he was here in the morning of October 7th this is the safe room of his house and he was in this BM room together with his family his wife and children and held on to the handle and they banged on the door and they said let us in it's the IDF where the Israeli Army were here to save you they were talking in Hebrew he realized that they were not really Israelis they were in fact terrorists so they held on to the door so the Arab terrorists over here literally where I'm standing they placed a bomb on the door and they blew up the door in order to let it open and come inside and kill everyone inside and just as the bomb exploded and the door opened the security team in this kibuts distracted them took them outside and killed them and you could clearly the the marks over here of a bomb that exploded and in fact he said that he had over here on this doorpost where we're standing he had a very simple wooden muuza and all of the explosions absolutely nothing got touched the muuza was completely intact nothing happened to it and in fact his family himself were saved he was badly injured and that was what went on over here so we can just for a moment picture or maybe even try to capture the emotions of a family inside a bom room and his little children who are pet ried trembling scared all the various emotions that children may have in such a situation of course they got their parents next to them but still the unknown what's going to be what's going to happen who knows if we're going to make it alive is one of the most petrifying experiences that any human being can ever have and especially a [Music] child kazal tell us that shabas is the ultimate br shabas is the Mak it's the foundation of all the BR in our lives we say in the Shabu when I keep the shabas the sh protects us we witnessed so much pain it was such a difficult day seeing those sights and hearing those stories but yet from within the darkness we found some Sparks of light we never understand why things happen and we can never offer answers to the most difficult questions but sometimes we look at kazal and it gives us the tell us that chabas protects and save lives and we can clearly see that on the morning of sim T it did exactly that kibuts a religious kibutz just south OFA the residents inside in the morning of Sim's Torah were they were celebrating the Young of and they realized a little bit of what was going on there were Sirens they heard the Rockets obviously and it was only a matter of time that the terrorists were also going to reach this entrance and come inside their kibuts they can hear the shooting they can hear screaming from various places nearby they know what's going on and they realize that there's no Army there's no one to save them and they're completely alone all of a sudden making no sense whatsoever out of nowhere appears a tank a tank driving on the street fast almost like a car [Applause] [Music] and kills almost 20 terrorists right over here before they can even enter inside an unbelievable thing which they realize doesn't happen and didn't make any sense and there were others as well there's a place called Kon a religious mosab between Barry and theot the gate was closed because of shabas Kesh the terrorists didn't even enter the gate and they continued on their way tifra a religious M 7 km east of raim over a thousand celebrating in that morning the terrorists didn't even reach there Tuma and zimat also religious moabs located between sad very close to where we are the terrorists passed by but never even tried to enter and there's no question about it that the shmir shabas protected them over here and in so many other places there's an electrifying written almost in Prophecy he writes shabas was spreading people weren't keeping the but when there's Unity when there's akas in K's Ro the anger of Hashem is subdued but when there's increased disunity and strife tragedy can follow the M writes this in 1926 the Holocaust was not long after and so it goes through history and indeed leading up to October 7th there was so much fighting there was so much disunity there was so much strife and then tragedy Struck One of the messages that we felt during that day was a message of akas this is the bomb shelter that our N Ship hero a British Israeli soldier the age of 22 years old was killed but it was how he was killed that I think should be such an inspiration he was in this bomb shelter side of the road trying to save his life amongst many as well the terrorists came over they realized there were people inside they wanted to kill them so they took a grenade and they threw it inside and there's a 4-minute dash cam video from a nearby car that was parked right over here and you could see the hand of somebody who picked up the grenade a live grenade and he threw it out that was an Shapiro he didn't just do it once he did it 7even times seven times he picked up a live grenade in order to save his life and the life of so many other people the eighth grenade unfortunately exploded in his hand and it killed him but it was the act of selflessness the act of thinking about somebody else not putting your life first and running into the corner so I can be saved but rather how can I save someone [Music] else we heard it straight from those terrorists being investigated they were they were talking about what caused them to go for it they were ready for a while as we all heard afterwards they said that the fact they saw us finding between us that was the reason the felt right on to come [Music] in the morale explains that even when CL are doing Gus even when CL are sinning the intrinsic Holiness of Aid when there is inspires tremendous raim tremendous mercy and we find that in the M the Turning Point came according to many when M and Esther brought in all of Claris saw men women and children together to DAV to fast to learn Torah when there was act us together that was the turning point in the Milla but when there's a nation that's ripped apart that's going in different directions hatred and disputes it causes Devastation and it causes destruction the pel writes in he brings a that the rests on only when there's there's no question that before what happened over here there was a tremendous lack ofas there was internal fighting with different sections of Cl something that should never be and we're here to try and Inspire ourselves that in every situation whatever we're going through whatever we're experiencing whatever we hear whatever we believe in wherever someone's holding it's irrelevant because at the end of the day there has to be Aras and when we have that Aras then we have the but when we lose theas when we're so busy with ourselves then we causes as it did a lot of [Music] Destruction I'm a FR man I haven't been in the army no one called me to call here no one made me come here I have a family at home in a safe yff I'm smack and metal Battlefield surrounded by terrorists I don't know if I'm going to make it out and we're watching just army cars coming from inside Fara hearing the booming seeing the helicopter shooting down and I see some people walking out alive civilians that were trapped inside we see injured people as well we see soldiers injured and sadly we see those that didn't make it and we see terrorists as well captured and I I can't understand why I'm doing there and then there's a moment that there was a command of many came up to me and just give me a huge hug with no words and was a moment that we both were with tears in our eyes with no words looks at me straight in my eyes and he says to me you're the last person I expected to see over here last week you were the person that most hated now you're my brother you're my family that moment with that Commando was exactly what we should feel it's what we really are we're brothers if I believe in serving the army or not if you believe in his way or not he is my family he is a Jewish person and sadly we don't need to get to those time but we are [Music] one I made just after P that was a huge spiritual high for me to be part of the nation that however hard we hit we get up and we keep going and you know this is the story of the Jewish Nation for thousands of years there's always attacks that bring us down but we're a nation that stick together we Inspire each other we we hold each other and we push each other to grow [Music] aak it's a time of danger for clis our brothers and sisters are sitting as we speak in captivity not far down the road in Gaza sure who would have thought that when we say the words that we mean it in a literal sense that we're asking the sh to release those in captivity the B asked the most fascinating question the BBA said why don't we start the with a every normally starts with a why don't we start because when all of the Y are together when they're all us when we all care about each other there's no need to say you rson because the unity and the arus of clol is so powerful that nothing else is necessary to one who believes that the r is the creator of the world it should be cleared to love and respect every single one of his human creations and the Nisha that he blew inside every single one of them failure to do so indicates a lack of respect for the one that created them we may have our differences that's okay but ultimately we have to love and respect every yid in CL Ro war is still [Music] going the hostages are still in Gaza and people are dying on a daily basis why the same reason that the destruction of the B mdash happened is the same reason that we're still here in the middle of this war we don't have the akas yes we may have had it for a few months right after the War Began but we lost something and we need to continue and be that I wanted the boys to see this and I want every single one of you to see this we're brothers and sisters every single one of us care about each other love each other and want the best for each other and when we do that things will change the M talks about greatness of likeu he stood as an individual against the whole world to spread the POS calls him isi Jewish person don't read it yoodi read it one that means that every single yid is the only one to the you have a task that is assigned only to you there's nobody else that can do what you were sent down on this world to accomplish all the nus that you've gone through all the challenges that you've gone through are your personal challenges that are tailor made for you think about the people over here that were unable to continue their lives and we are B able to continue our lives and accomplish and do the moral says that we're called B my son my first one says the morale what does that mean a family can only have one first one how can it be that everyone's called that says the morale if we would recognize and realize how the ra treats and looks at every single one of us as his only child and the love a parent has to an only child is unbelievable how much greater the loves us we're child to the and he's waiting for us and he wants to inspire us and he wants to connect to us but we have to make the first step this production was brought to you for no charge whatsoever because we really felt that the message was so important we wanted everyone to hear it and get the that we got from it take a part in all the thousands that are listening on this day and allow me to continue doing what I do we've seen utter destruction families being wiped out homes destroyed lives change forever we felt the pain but we also heard the stories of Miracles of perseverance and courage stories of selflessness and akas that's the light from within the darkness that's so difficult to see the abov says that when clarisol entered the B mdash and they walked into the kakim they saw the Kim facing each other which is known to be a time of such intense love between the sh and and he asks how can it be how can it be and a time of so much destruction that the crew at this time are facing each other says the upov it's the time that the sends us away that there's so much pain that there's also so much love and it's the time of the when had to put us in Exile where there was so much love between us and the we have to remember we're living in Dark Times we're living in times of so much pain so much destruction but yet tell us don't worry Theon is with us with so much love in every one of our Lives sorus hardships are meant to change us as people they're meant to improve us they're meant to get us closer to the Rob the medis asks how is it that right after all of a sudden par starts running after us asks the medish why would the RAM do such a thing why would the r release CL from their slavery and straight after her parro running after them answers the medish as follows because when Claris inim they were in a hard time it was difficult they were ding to the they felt the pain and they had that connection but when they left MIT they were free and all of a sudden there was no more connection says the medra sometimes the raon sees how disconnect and says I want you to connect again and therefore the ronam brings sorus to our lives to enable us to reconnect the taorus that we just witnessed and the taorus that we're currently going through have a purpose and that purpose is for us to be able to turn to the and to reconnect our relationship with the asks the question how can we possibly dream of bringing Masia the didn't do it the thees the bat none of them could do this and we little us is going to bring mhia it's not possible explains the that our deeds in this world mean so much to the way more than what their deeds meant at the time that they lived because of the nus the trials and tribulations that we go through in our lives in this generation every small thing we do means so much to the the wants your T he wants your he wants your ding youra youris yourin your whatever you can do every action you bring into this world creates the light from within the darkness and we're living in a dark generation so the smallest thing we do brings in the greatest light that can bring mashia in the of so many that died then on that day and every single day until today and the hostages and the sorus that Clara are going through and there's so much sorus it's too much for us to Bear Let's Close Our Eyes just for a few seconds and think what can we do in our lives what can we do to get closer to the ra to develop that relationship with Hashem what can we improve in what can we accept upon ourselves enable the to come quicker we should all be to stand together to dance together with the [Music] [Applause] sh [Music] [Applause] [Music]