“I just remember praying to God, begging him, saying ‘save me, I’m in your hands now. It was a sentence I often said in captivity.” This is how Bar Kuperstein, an Israeli hostage held by Hamas, described one of his scariest days in captivity when a Palestinian guard threatened to kill three of the hostages and ordered the captives to choose which ones would die, a threat he ultimately did not carry out.

In interviews since his release from captivity, Kuperstein spoke about his reliance on prayer and God during the worst days of being a hostage. Prayer lent him and other hostages comfort. Kuperstein said that every Friday night the hostages that were with him insisted on saying the traditional Shabbat prayers together.

Bar Kuperstein wasn’t the only hostage to find strength in Torah and prayer while in captivity. Rom Bravslevski explained his source of strength during his captivity, “They kept telling me, ‘We are Muslims,’ ‘We are Arabs,’ ‘We are the true religion,’ ‘We are Muhammad,’” Braslavski said. “I believe we need to go back to being a united people. People should start keeping mitzvot [Jewish commandments] and understand what it means to be Jewish. Look at what happened to me, what they did to me, just because I’m a Jew. That means a Jew should understand he is in a higher place, different from someone who isn’t Jewish. We need to strengthen Judaism, and I hope the people of Israel remain united.” One of the first things Braslavski did upon being........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)