Every morning, Shelly Shem Tov would enter her son’s vacant bedroom to recite Chapter 20 from the Book of Psalms, an ancient prayer seeking deliverance.
Unbeknownst to her, Omer Shem Tov was reciting the same Psalm 20 verses — "May the Lord answer you in a day of distress" — deep underground in a Hamas tunnel beneath Gaza.
At just 20 years old, Omer was taken hostage during the October 7, 2023, assault on southern Israel. Raised in a mostly secular household, he was working as a waiter and preparing for a post-army trip to South America when he was seized.
He was captured while attempting to flee the Nova music festival, a large rave near the Gaza border.
Within days of his captivity, Omer began turning to God, making vows, blessing the meager food he received, and praying earnestly — some of his prayers, he believes, were answered.
“In such desperate times, you seek something to hold onto,” he reflected during an interview at his family home in Herzliya. “My first refuge was faith. I felt a power enter me.”
“Faith was my lifeline,” he added. “I always believed I would return home, even if I didn’t know when or how.”
After 505 days in captivity, Omer was freed in late February as part of a temporary cease-fire agreement.
Though he had always believed in God, Omer admitted he had never been religiously observant before his capture.
Many of the hostages released since have shared similar stories of finding hope and resilience through reconnecting with spirituality and Jewish traditions.
Some hostages drew strength from a powerful motto attributed to philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and popularized by Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl: “He who has a why can bear any how.” This phrase was shared by Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an Israeli-American hostage killed in captivity.
Among those inspired by this saying is Eli Sharabi, who emerged from captivity after 491 days to devastating news that his wife and two teenage daughters were killed in the October 2023 attack. During his imprisonment, he recited the Shema Yisrael prayer daily and tried to observe the Sabbath rituals as best he could, despite dire conditions.
Sharabi credited Goldberg-Polin’s maxim for sustaining him during the darkest times. Another former hostage, Or Levy, even tattooed the phrase on his arm after his release.
Meanwhile, Shelly Shem Tov, Omer’s mother, embarked on her own spiritual journey, beginning to observe Sabbath rules. She discovered Psalm 20 by chance through a card distributed to families of hostages, which bore Omer’s name.
During 27 days in early 2024, while Omer was trapped in a Hamas tunnel, he could hear Israeli forces above. After they moved on, his captors brought him reading materials left behind by soldiers, including religious texts they mistakenly thought contained military codes.
Among these was a card with Psalm 20 printed on it — this time without Omer’s name.
The Abduction
On October 7, Omer fled with his close friend Maya Regev and her brother, Itai Regev, across a rugged field near the festival site.
Ori Danino, who had recently joined their group, managed to escape but returned to retrieve them after they sent their location.
Their vehicle came under fire, injuring the Regev siblings. All four were abducted to Gaza, with Danino taken separately. The Israeli military later reported that Danino and five other hostages, including Hersh Goldberg-Polin, were executed in a tunnel in southern Gaza in August 2024.
Upon arrival in Gaza, Omer was lowered underground in a plastic tub by a winch. Attempting to humanize his captors, he introduced himself and inquired about them. One asked if he knew Israeli pop singer Eden Ben Zaken, prompting Omer to sing a chorus from her song “Queen of Roses.”
He was forced to walk through the tunnels and brought into a house furnished with yellow couches and a chandelier before being transported to the first apartment where he was held. The Regev siblings joined him there after basic treatment for their wounds. Maya was later moved to a Palestinian hospital, and the siblings were freed alongside many other hostages during a brief cease-fire in November 2023.
Omer was moved multiple times, often at night, once disguised as a veiled Muslim woman. He and Maya narrowly avoided Israeli airstrikes, including one that shattered their room’s windows, filling it with thick black dust.
About a week into captivity, he began observing kosher practices as best as possible, choosing either cheese or canned meat when both were served, in line with Jewish dietary laws. He vowed to pray daily with tefillin — small leather boxes containing scripture — if he survived.
Omer considers surviving the initial ambush a miracle. A photo of the bullet-ridden car shows the passenger-side windshield shattered where he had been sitting. “Even now, I’m amazed I made it out alive,” he said.
Following the collapse of the November cease-fire, Omer was returned to the tunnels, where he spent the remainder of his captivity mostly alone except for occasional visits from his captors.
Life Beneath the Surface
For 50 days, Omer was confined to a cramped, suffocating cell with minimal food — sometimes as little as a single biscuit and a few drops of salty water daily. The darkness was near total, and his asthma made breathing difficult until his captors provided an inhaler.
At his lowest point, he prayed fervently for deliverance. Shortly afterward, he was moved to a larger underground chamber with white tiled walls and electricity — a stark improvement he described as “paradise.”
Two days later, his captors intended to send him back to the smaller cell, but an Israeli military strike blocked the tunnel entrance, allowing him to remain in the better quarters.
Omer sought to maintain good relations with his captors by preparing their meals, cleaning, and washing dishes, believing this earned him better treatment. When a tunnel section collapsed, he worked tirelessly for two weeks, seven hours a day, to clear a crawlable path.
Throughout, he held tightly to his faith, blessing food and saving a small bottle of grape-flavored drink for Friday night kiddush prayers, which his captors found curious but amusing.
Now back home, Omer is gradually recovering. His father notes he has grown more mature and focused. Omer aspires to study acting and recently completed a speaking tour across Jewish communities in the United States.
He continues his daily prayers with tefillin in his bedroom, a ritual that became a source of strength during his ordeal.
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