For moving, inspirational writing, The Shofar can recommend none batter than an article by Isabel Kershner in the Wednesday, June 11, issue of The New York Times. Check your local library for an archived copy.

The story centers on Omer Shem Tov, who was 20 years old when gunmen seized him during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel. He had grown up in a largely secular home, and was captured while fleeing the Nova music festival. A few days into his captivity, he began to speak to God. “You  are looking for something to lean on, something to hold onto,” Mr. Shem Tov said in a recent interview at his home in Herzliya. He had been released after 505 days in Gaza.

For 50 of those days, he sat in a small stifling cell with hardly and food or water. It was pitch dark most of the time. But like many of the hostages have recounted, he clung to his newfound faith that he had survived so far.

Now home and recovering, he said that he prays daily in his bedroom with tefillin.