Soul Connection - Movie: Hebrew with English Subtitles

The angel of death was in our house. I saw him come in. I had been feeling this for three or four months before the incident. I actually saw him from above. We had just taken a trip to China for vacation. When we came back in August, I opened the door, it was 2am, it was four months before the incident I said to myself "Mika, you have to learn to say goodbye to him". It was a beautiful trip. But when I came back I was hit with turmoil in my life. I developed an anxiety. Every time my friends asked me to go out, I would say "No, I have to stay at home". I would not leave my house. I would just sit by the telephone waiting for the call telling me that he is dead. On the 21st of December, I woke up, showered, got dressed and said goodbye to my wife. She told me "You look more beautiful than ever" He had a light in his body. He woke me up to ask me how he looked, because he had a meeting that day. There was so much light around him that I said to him "Wow, you are so beautiful!" I was the producer of "Yedeot Achronot" (An Israeli newspaper). We had a meeting that day to improve sales. We were siting in a meeting at the radio station, 102 in Tel Aviv. In the middle of the meeting he stood up. Although he looked fine, something was wrong. Suddenly, we heard a loud bang. Everyone got up at once! What happened? Shuli fell! I fell to the floor like a heavy sack of potatoes! No one ever thought that there would be any (health) issues with Shuli I fell on the left side of my head on the steps At that point, everyone lost it. At 5pm I was sitting at work and suddenly I felt an excruciating pain in my body... and it wouldn't pass... We saw him laying on the floor unconscious - I have the chills even as I speak... Lucky for me, there was another spokesperson for the radio, Sharon Tayfer, there at the time He came running to help and did mouth to mouth resuscitation, but nothing changed. The chances of surviving a cardiac arrest goes down 10% per minute I remember he was foaming at the mouth. I don't understand things medically, but I know from movies that it's not a good sign. At times, his body was shaking and he was having a seizure. I didn't know what that meant but it scared me even more. With a cardiac arrest, the survival rate is low. But after seven minutes, brain damage can occur and the chance of survival is even lower. According to what people said, I was laying there for 8-10 minutes unconscious... The bottom line is, I see him laying there for more than an hour and nothing is happening It was a terrible shock for everyone! Then I remember that at this point we needed to call Shuli's wife. He told me "Mrs Rappaport, you have to come as fast as you can, things do not look good". "What do you mean not good?" "NOT GOOD..." "Come as fast as you can and do not drive yourself. Promise me you won't drive!" My body started shaking and I asked my neighbor to drive me. It ended up taking us a while to get there. I remember that when they entered the doctors room, it seemed as though they were in there for hours And then the nurse started crying... The signs began to point to how serious the situation was They told me that they don't know exactly what happened, they did a CT scan on him and saw there was not a clot in his brain. The nurse said "I wish I could tell you what's happened, but we just don't know". Stay strong and hold yourself together! There's a period of 48 hours where you just don't know if he's even going to wake up at all It's a very hard stage for everyone The specialist took us aside and told us that there is a 0.001% percentage of everything working out He told us, we need a lot of luck and the only thing we can do is to pray He told me "Mrs Rappaport, you need a miracle, luck isn't enough" I prepared clothing for each of the children for the funeral...they were sure that he wouldn't make it through the night. We didn't know if he'd wake up, how can he would wake up etc. That's when we really started to worry At that stage you can't tell the family what the chances of him waking up are. And even if he does wake up, what kind of state he will be in What we understood from the doctors was that even if Shuly would survive, he would not be the same Shuly We waited, hoped and prayed... In the first few days, his fever wasn't going down On the third day, my mother went to see the doctor I went up to the room and I asked everyone to leave All she wanted was to say her final good-byes in the right way, and to say a few words to me before I gave my soul back to The Creator I said to him "Shuly, we love you and we're letting you go, you're free. Don't stay for us if it's hard for you, stay there, we'll manage, we'll be okay". "This one time in your life, do what's good for you, don't think about us". "We love you. We're letting you go. Go". And then I kissed him goodbye. I was in a corridor. A long, white one. In this corridor I passed by figures but I don't remember them having legs. But I remember myself moving forward in the corridor without knowing how I was actually moving In the corridor I saw figures of people I knew, but were no longer alive I saw my mother, may she rest in peace. And I saw the figure of my friend from the army, Ravi Plushinsky, who committed suicide at the age of 19 Then I walked into a larger area, a sort of lobby or hall In the hall I saw over 20 people that were sitting and standing around me. On both my sides were sitting two men. After looking closer I saw that one of them was my father's grandfather who I'm named after. He sat on my right, as far as I remember, and on my left sat a man, his face looked really familiar And he told me his name was Shimon. He was my advocate, my petitioner. In that hall, the prosecutor was telling of things I had done and sins that I had transgressed. Shimon was advocating for me with such passion, that I was amazed! When he finished his advocacy, The main head of the court told me, "we've decided to give you the option to stay here. This next world is beautiful." But if you decide to go back, we give you that option too. You won't have heart diease and you'll live a good life. 36 hours later, the hospital staff woke me up. I decided to wait for the cardiac catheterization that checks his heart When the examination was over, the doctor looked stunned. He said that nothing was the matter with the patient. He has no heart disease. The truth is, that even after all the tests, we knew nothing more than what we knew at the beginning. You have to understand - Shuly doesn't come from a background of people who have heart disease Shuly would never, ever take pills, even if he had a cold! Illness is not something we have experience with in the family at all. It's weird in the first place that he got sick. It was even weirder that the next day he awoke. When he told me that he got the choice to come back and be healthy, and then he did, There is no question (that this was a miracle)! When I woke up from the coma, I asked my wife, Mika, "Who is Shimon, I have to know who is this Shimon" At 10:53, The Israeli Defense Forces went in 50 minutes ago. This was the beginning of the operation. As with any operation, no one knows what the outcome will be in the same way no one knows where a snowball will land. My name is Shimon Benzion I fought in the The Lebanon War: Peace for Galilee in 1982. I was part of a battalion with a mix of religious and non-religious soldiers. We all tried to stay united. There was always the discussion of when we should start training (in the morning). The religious soldiers would say we should first pray Shacharit and we need to have a break to daven Mincha We always knew that there is a man who is a Tzadik, and that is Shimon Benzion. When he was with us in the tank, it was an advantage. He always spoke and acted righteously and guided us correctly. I had a commander Shalom Rappaport. When it came to worldly views we were very different. If I got my beliefs from Rabbis like Rav Kook, then Shalom got his from philosophers like Jean Paul Sartre We always had a friendly but not deep or personal friendship. Just like, "Hello, Goodbye!" We didn't have much in common in those days. It was new to all of us. Now, when I look back, it seemed so simple, because its history. But when you are in the middle of a war, and you change from just a simple guy on a farm who just lives his life, to a warrior endangering his life, that is hard. On Wednesday evening we arrived at Tzir B'anur (a place near Lebanon). Our tank was commanded to enter the area. Our tanks were down in the valley and we saw flashing lights on the tips of the mountains. We started getting closer when suddenly we were hit by a barrage of rockets. We backed up as fast as we could. The night vision goggles weren't very useful but we tried as much as we could to scare them off with our rockets. They were shooting at us and we at them. Thank G-d we weren't hit directly in the night. We understood that as the sun comes up and it gets light, we will have to continue and enter Lebanon. We had learned how to use these tools in training and as time went on, we realized we would now have to use them to kill. It's not a natural thing that people normally do. On Thursday morning as the sun rose, we went to our launch position. In order to shoot at the tanks that were in-front of us, we remained hidden. When I say in-front of us, I mean at a distance of 3 kilometres The time was 5:10AM. And then the actual fighting began. The sun was in our eyes and Shimon Benzion was not able to recognize the target, because he was blinded. Because we couldn't see from inside the tank, I emerged from the tank, and sat on top, to give manual instructions. I yelled "FIRE!!" and we shot the missile We then saw the missile hit the target and the enemies tank exploded. When we hit a syrian tank, we felt really good and victorious When one tank gets into position for shooting, the other tank backs it up by giving feedback and instructions to the first tank. And only the commander is exposed to the second tanks position. Shalom Rappaport, who was the commander of our battalion, was in charge of the tank that was on my right side. He started shooting at another enemy tank that came from the opposite direction. We would shoot one of the mortar shells, and when we needed another, we had to go down inside the tank to get one. I shot down another Syrian tank. As I was maneuvering to the next shooting position, I saw another tank out of my shooting range and commanded Shimon to shoot it down. I obeyed my command, and after shooting the first missile, we headed to the direction of the next Syrian tank, and we took out 3 more missles Later on we were told, that while we were preparing our ammunition, little did we know that a Syrian tank was aiming directly at us. I told him, ''Coby, you need to leave your position now!'' ''I'm just loading up one more missile and I'll come down as soon as I'm done." I said to him firmly that he was being targeted and must get down quickly, as he was in grave danger. He said "OK, I'll be down in a minute.This is just the last one" As he was finishing arming his missile I yelled through the radio, "leave now!" The Syrian rocket was fired aimed directly towards Coby I yelled louder, "Everyone, leave your positions now!" Everyone left except for Coby. The Syrian shooter aimed with accuracy towards Coby's tank The first was too high, the second, too low, and then they shot and hit. The rocket hit the front left side of the tank I recall seeing the rocket speeding towards us and exploding the tank with massive force. Coby was thrown from his commanding station. The collision between the rocket and the tank caused tremendous damage resulting in a terrible fire and unimaginable heat. The minute I saw the explosion and Coby being thrown (from the tank) and the fire I told my brigade, "Coby's tank has been hit! Hold my position while I check up on Coby's condition and if it is possible to save him. "Someone give me a fire extinguisher!" The driver and co-soldiers in the tank were killed on impact. I felt myself burning I jumped out and rolled on the ground desperately trying to put out the fire. I was stuck alone in the sub-shooters compartment, where the chances for survival were extremely low. 58% of my body had very severe burns. My adrenaline was still high Fortunately, I was still able to think clearly. Just at that momentum, Shalom Rappaport ran over to me. I asked him if he was okay. He replied that he would be okay, and that I should hurry over to his tank and check up on the others. Although it's hard to comprehend, the heat in the tank was over 200 degrees Celsius (392 degrees Fahrenheit). The nature of the uniform I was wearing was to crumble apart, saving me from any additional burns (by the clothing sticking to my body). The gloves on my hands protected them from burning too. In seconds I lost consciousness. I still had the intense will to live. God gave us the deep desire to hold onto every moment of life that we can. Although I was unconscious, my body still had this powerful instinct to stay alive. I felt a serge of inner strength and I knew I had to leave the tank immediately. Since my hands were being protected I was able to grab hold of handles and slowly pull myself up I dragged myself out of the scorching tank The seared tank was in flames and boiling hot. Friends told me later on that the Syrians had kept on sending missiles. There was an absolute danger that the tank would explode at any moment. I had no more strength. I was only able to pull myself up to the entrance to the tank. One more moment I would have fallen back down and I wouldn't have been about to get out. Through God's kindness, an "angel" appeared. I saw where he had gotten on his own, and realized that it wouldn't be easy rescue Shimon. He took hold the strap which was attached to my uniform. It was on the verge of crumbling. Until this day I don't know where I had the strength to pull him up, but I did. He pulled me out with unbelievable spiritual and physical strength to save my life. His strength was so great, that it was as if he was just pulling out a strand of hair from yogurt. I was able to pull him out and role him onto the tank's platform. I looked around to see if there was anyone to help. There wasn't. I decided that the only way to save him was by throwing him off the tank onto the ground. Otherwise, I wouldn't succeed since I didn't have anymore strength. The tank full of fire, gas, and amunition. It was on the verge of exploding at any point. In my opinion, it is clear, that any man who would jump into a tank on fire, twice, to save another person, is deserving of "Olam Haba" (The World to Come) There's no question about it. It's a split second decision His entire existence, upbringing and way of life compelled him to do this! He was willing to give up his his whole life, his family and possessions, to save another person. From the moment that Coby's tank was hit, I didn't think (I just reacted). If I had been thinking I might not have done what I did, for the fear would have been too great. I told Reb Shimon and Shalom, that it seemed as though their souls were connected, as a result of the flames... and it appears to me that the right thing for them to do would be to learn together. I added that all the Torah that Shimon teaches, is considered in heaven as Shalom's merit. If it were not for Shalom, Shimon would not be here today. The meeting with Shimon could not have happened with me being the old me, Shuli. It had to happen when he was Rav Shimon Benzion and I was the new me, Shalom. From what I have been learning with Shimon, the world has been destroyed before because mankind worshiped the material and not the spiritual. In my humble opinion, we live in a world that covets physical desires, and not the the inner most important things such as spirituality. In addition, giving and love are the qualities of what makes us who we are. It's a pity We have to go back to our essence, the basics of what makes us human beings. love, giving, respect, between man and man, and between man and his Creator, and the things that makes our existence special and unique.