The Strength of Torah in the Darkest Corners

“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 freed was put on tefilin.

Eli Sharabi, who wrote an inspiring book about his time in captivity, was not a Torah observant Jew in the years before he was taken captive by Palestinians in Gaza. It was during his years in captivity that he began reciting the Shema prayer, declaring the unity of God, everyday. He would save scraps of bread for Friday night to make a Shabbat meal.

Omer Shem Tov had grown up in a largely secular home, and was living a relatively carefree existence when he was taken captive at the Nova music festival. Shem Tov, said he had always had faith, but had never been religiously observant. “You are looking for something to lean on, to hold onto. The first place I went to was God. I would feel a power enter me. Faith kept me going. I always believed I would get home, though I didn’t know how or when.”

As the New York Times reported, (Finding God, and Nietzsche, in the Hamas Tunnels of Gaza, June 10, 2025) “Many other released hostages have spoken of similar experiences, finding solace and the strength to survive by connecting or reconnecting with God and recalling oft-forgotten Jewish rituals.”

There is irony in Hamas and other Palestinians taking innocent Israelis captive because their Jewish and in the hopes of destroying the Jewish state and the hope of the Jewish people, only to strengthen Israelis’ faith in God and their nation. “We have not lost our hope,” is a well known stanza in “Hatikva,” Israel’s national anthem. It described the resilience of the Jewish people throughout 2,000 years of exile from their homeland. That statement of Israel’s faith is just as true today as it was for the last 2,000 years. When it trouble the Jewish people don’t give up their hope or faith in God or their people. The more our enemies try to weaken our resolve and faith, the stronger the it gets.

The Jewish hostages’ reliance on faith in God, Torah, and prayer to help them survive the deepest dungeons and the worst torture can teach the rest of the Jewish people, and the global community of faith, important lessons in their own lives.

There is an unfortunate and inaccurate view of the Torah and mitzvos that is shared by too many people. It views the Torah as a restrictive system of discipline that denies independent Jews of their freedom and a pursuit of happiness. With so many “do these” and “don’t ever do these,” many can feel they don’t have the liberty to lead their lives as they’d prefer.

This erroneous perspective on Torah and mitzvos views the mitzvos merely as commands of the king. The idea that mitzvos brings happiness to people is at best confusing and at worst an anathema to many Jews. Torah and mitzvos provide structure to the Jewish life. Instead of chasing the latest desire and catchy gadget, the Jew finds structure in praying three times a day, keeping kosher, and taking a break from their hectic lives each Shabbat. The structure of the Torah lifestyle allows a person to find order in challenging times and happiness in a largely superficial world that eschews meaning.

Another lesson the hostages taught is that in Israeli life, as opposed to partisan social media platforms, faith and Torah observance are not two ends of a scale that demands a person sit on one end or the other. Torah life is a spectrum with people finding themselves at various points on the line of faith. Not wearing a kippah or observing Shabbat does not mean you don’t have faith in God or never pray. When the hostages faced almost insurmountable challenges their faith and prayers were just as strong as the people we usually describe as “religious.”

The most important lesson the hostages taught us is that when the challenge seems too great to meet, when you lose hope in the soldiers coming to rescue you, and the diplomats forging a deal, God can still turn the impossible to possibly and fantasy to reality. While each Jew hopes to never face the challenges of being taken hostage, they will find challenges in their own lives so painful that they will seem impossible to overcome. The hostages have taught us that specifically at these times is when we can still turn to God.

At some point over the past two years, every Jew has wondered what they’d do if they ever faced being held in captivity. They fear they’d give up hope, succumb to the taunts of their captives, and fall with the many beatings. In their perseverance, courage, and strength, the hostages taught us to find strength in God, Torah and prayer.