Shelly Shem Tov, mother of 22-year-old Omer Shem Tov, who was abducted from the Nova music festival on October 7, told the Jerusalem Post Miami Summit that since the 430 days since her son’s been held hostage she’s no longer counting the days, she’s counting the minutes.
“It’s more than half a million minutes that my sunshine is in captivity. People are asking me, how can you handle it? So I am saying that every day, I am afraid to open my eyes because I don’t know what the day will bring,” Shelly said. “Then I am opening my eyes and I see daylight, and I’m thinking about my Omer that didn’t see daylight for 430 days.”
Shelly shared how she hasn’t touched Omer’s messy room since October 7, saying that he will come home and clean it himself.
Shelly said she goes into Omer’s room every morning and says “good morning, love of my life, I know that you are strong, I know that you have faith. We are doing everything to bring you back home.”
Living in a nightmare
It’s a nightmare of more than half a million minutes in hell she doesn’t want any parent to experience.
Shelly recounted learning about Omer in captivity from former hostage Itay Regev, a friend of Omer’s he who was abducted and held captive with, along with Regev’s sister.
Shelly learned how Omer and Itay observed Shabbat in Hamas captivity with a small bottle of grape juice, a piece of bread or even a piece of salt. They knew God was with them, she said.
“I’m so proud about my son. They took his freedom, but they couldn’t take his faith, his soul,” Shelly said. “And for me, I know that my son is strong. He has faith. He knows that he’s waiting, that people, the soldiers will come to take him back home. And we are waiting, and we are praying every day that this miracle would happen.”
Jesus Christ is King
Comments are closed.