Beit Shemesh Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan Seminar- Michal Ohana, How I chose Shabbat after Nova

[clears throat] My name is Mikalluana. I'm 28 years old. And I'm going to share a little bit about myself before October 7. So before October 7, I was living in Portugal. Um I'm a vet nurse. I go to live there because uh I love this country and I have a Portugal passport uh and I love animals. So I start to to work in this work and this is all my life. One week before October 7, um I came to Israel to visit my family to be with them in their holidays tokot in also because my old sister she need to give a beard. So I came to Israel and two of my friends Osher and Mik they called me and they said Mkal you are in Israel you need to came to the Nova Festival. It's going to be a big festival with a lot of DJ from all the world and I love to dance. I love music. And I said, "Okay, it's a good idea. It's a good time to see all my friends to dance together." Um, and this is what we do. I wear to the to the festival with all my friends. Um uh we go to the festival on 100 a.m. in the morning and until 6:30 in the morning. It was the best festival that I was and I was. But this time in this festival everybody come to celebrate the life to celebrate birthday uh dancing smiling the vibe the people everything was like amazing. Um 6:30 in the morning uh Hamas started to send rockets to Israel and the festival stopped the music. They said everybody need to go out from this area. I don't know why but I take my phone I put on video and I start to take a video from all this time. So all the video is my video. in this time I don't understand what what they said and I said why what happened Yes. Um and then two of my friends, Tom and Ben, they said, "Okay, Mikal, we are so close to Gaza. We need to stay in the car." And I said, "Okay, we stay in the car until they stop with their rockets and then we go home." And this is what we do. We stay in the car from 6:30 until 8 in the morning. 8 in the morning. This is the first time that we start to hearing the gunshot. And I start to feeling in my stomach like something bad going to happen. Um I said I screamed to Tom and Ben, get in the car. We need to go out from this area now. auto. I have a lot of video but it's too much graphic. So um I didn't going to uh show you that but after this video we get in the car and we start to drive I think 2 minutes but after 2 minute uh we saw tender pickup truck with a lot of terrorists and they start to shut all over the car. So me and Tom, we get out from the car and we start to running back to the festival. Um, and then I just saw the terrorist and I didn't know what to do. Um, I was in such a stress and panic. My legs like freezing and I sit on the ground. I start to cry. I take a video, selfie video that uh, I saw the terrorist and I can't run anymore. Um so we get inside to a police uh place in in the festival and we sitting there for 20 minutes I think after 20 minutes um a police woman she saw from this small window terrorist came and she start to scream and I can't forget her face when she scream she said uh who want to say to stay alive, need to go out now and start running. So me and Tom, we get out from this place and we started running and we run all over dead bodies including my friends. Sorry. And then uh I started running and from far I saw tank IDF tank and I said to myself okay it's the army the soldiers they came to take us they came to save me I run into the tank and when I get to the tank I start to understood that all the soldiers in the tank they murder and the body is kidnapped. So I was under attack for seven hours. 12 in the morning kamas they saw me there and they shot me. I get a shot in my leg and they send uh to RPG uh and all the little sharpness piercing my stomach. And I remember this moment. I called my mom and I said, "Please, mom, I love you, but they shot me and I'm bleeding. I'm under attack and nobody's coming." Um, she started to cry because she want to help me, but she can't. Uh and then I remember that I understood that nobody's coming. Not the police, nor the soldiers, nobody. And I start to talking with the God. I said, "Please God, I don't want to die. Not like this. Not today. Please save me." And I start to say, I think I said 50 times in one minute. And I start I start to pray to the god and I was with uh a lot of people from the festival in the tank and it was one people like Daniel Shahabi he was with me there and he said thank you and he said okay G girls and boy uh we need to start to pray to the god we said myself together and we said Shila Malo together. And I have this It was crazy day. It was crazy hours. Seven hours that I I don't think I know that I'm going to die. Um but after seven hours uh special soldiers they came to take us and they take me to Soroka in Beerva the hospital and after I moved to Adasa and Kim here in Jerusalem because my mom she's a nurse in this hospital. Um, this is me in the hospital and this is my mom. And it was crazy for me because I start to understood that I'm stay alive and in the same time in the same hospital my old sister she give a beard. So we was together in the hospital and this is my new nephew. So it was a a two miracles for me in this day that I'm stay alive after all this crazy day and I have a new nephew uh my sister call him Emmanuel because the god was with us in this day after uh the hospital I was there two weeks in the hospital and after I go home and I start to understood that I have a lot of power because I have a lot of video and I was there. I lost 10 of my friends in this day and two of them kidnapped to Gaza. One of them is Aliyah Cohen and Elana. And today I can stand and say thanks God that they back alive. [applause] So when I start to understood that I have a lot of power, I start to go all over the world and share the story, tell the truth about what happened to us. Um, every moment and after October 7, I think to myself, how I can say thanks to the God that I'm stay alive. Um, so I start to keep the Shabbat from October 7 until today. I keep the Shabbat. [applause] Um, and I start to do art, surfing, um, all the thing that I know, uh, that can therapy and do healing for myself. >> [gasps and sighs] >> I start to light the candle every sh she and when I light the candle until today uh it's two years from October 7 but I until today when I light the candle in Friday I feel the same feeling that I feel when I was under a tank and I and I'm talking to the god uh when I'm close my eyes and start to talking with the god I feel the same feeling so I can't um >> to give up from the light the candles on Friday so for me it's uh all this is Alcana [snorts] and I want to share about Ben my friend he was with me in the festival Ben was a hero for Uh Ben success to get out from the festival. Benimonyi uh he success to get out from the festival and he didn't find us me and Tom. So he take five people and he put them in the TV and he back to the festival and again he didn't find me and Tom. So he take another five people and he put them in Berkeva and he back to the festival. He do it three times. In the last time he was with Romy Gonen. Romy was kidnapped to Gaza and thanks God he back she's back. But uh Ben Mor in this time but for me and I think for all Israel he was a hero but he back um to the festival to to save us to save people that he didn't know um again and again and again. So I writing here one for all all for one. Uh because this is what's been um I'm here today not to make you cry or make you sad. I'm here to make sure people understood what happened to us on October 7 and what still happened in Israel. And also I'm here to bring a light and hope because after two years I can said I feel the God every little moments every day every minutes um I feel [clears throat] him he was with me and this is my job now I didn't back to my job to the vet nurse because For now, I can't see blood and animals. It's too much trigger for me. So, this is what I do. I do kushem and I do for the god because he saved me and you part of my healing because when I'm share the story and tell the truth about what happened to us, I feel this is my therapy. This is my healing. So, thank you so much for [applause] Thank you. [applause] Can you talk more about how you travel? Really hard for her because she didn't really know what to do and she was still in trauma and she just wasn't sure what to do with herself. So then she encountered the organization basically started making shabbat. Kesher started making shabat um for um the survivors from the Noah and for the families of the hostages that they would keep sh together as a suit that the hostages should come back. So she was keeping Shabbat by herself and then it was really hard. When she started doing it with Ket, she understood she was doing it for a purpose because at that time they were doing it in order to bring back the hostages. She felt like there was a goal and they also taught her the beauty of chabas and taught her how to do it with happiness and with singing and and to to feel the light of No, So they were able to kind of close the circle on they um they wrote a new for in memory of all those that were killed at Noah. And so they they brought it out in that was also when the hostages came back. There was such suka and such you know to be able to to to really dance um that you know that they come back and the war was over. Um at the same time to to remember their friends um that they passed was a just a very special way to kind of close. Shabbat. >> [applause] >> take you all. So, she doesn't have a lot to add. I think she does have a lot to add. Like I said, it's fresh glasses. And she said, "The main thing is to remember what what a gift it is that we have. The ability to to go to sh to connect to Hashem, to dress with you, to be with Um, and it's a really appreciate child. [applause] Yes. >> Very busy and is kind of quiet and there are times when I feel like I just want to Okay, you know, now I'm just not going to I'm sleeping more. I'm just having a down time, which we need. But you really renewed for me that awareness of the Hashem and to value the time with family in a way through your eyes. You gave me a lot more of that beauty. Thank you. >> Thank you. [applause] like you said uh all the weeks we work and we do a lot of things and the Shabbat it's a that we can rest uh but also it's uh it's a day that we can connect to Hashem without you know >> emotional Can I hug you? [laughter]