Meirav Leshem-Gonen, the mother of Romi Gonen, who returned home about two and a half weeks ago after 471 days in Hamas captivity, said that Romi has kept Shabbos since her return.
In an interview with Kol Berama, Meirav said: “Romi is strong in a way that’s hard to explain. There’s something powerful and connecting in Judaism, especially mutual responsibility, and that’s what kept them going – that people cared about and worried about them.”
Meirav shared that Romi has kept two Shabbatot since her return, and that she and her friend found a way to daven in captivity. “In captivity, the difference between the terrorists and Jewish solidarity, which is the secret of our existence, is very strong,” she said.
Meirav, who became close to the families of Gedolei Yisrael while her daughter was in captivity, said that she wasn’t familiar with the Chareidi community before October 7. “I got to know entire sectors that I didn’t know beforehand and to understand that diversity is part of our power. I feel that we’re on the right path, that Am Yisrael is strong.”
She shared that it was touching to go to Bnei Brak on Purim and discover that the residents daven three times a day for the hostages. “It’s the only community that knows the names of all the hostages and their mothers because they daven for them,” she said. “There are also pashkivilim [posters] on the streets saying not to celebrate outside because there’s a war. This is part of our shared fate as a people.”
Meirav told Ynet on Tuesday that Romi suffered excruciating pain in Gaza after being shot on October 7 and is now facing complex surgery and a long rehabilitation. Her captors did not provide any painkillers and instead stood and laughed at her suffering.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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5 Responses
Yes, me too I have a list of hostages with mothers names which I daven for by each licht bentchen as well when I get a chance to go to the grave of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Waiting for better News daily bezrat Hashem
Our chareidi are a blessing
When she says charadim, she means the Daati leumi. The ones in yeshivous do not say tehilom for hostages. As one Yeshiva bochur told me, we don’t say tehillim since no one frum is a hostage. No joke!
A yid is a yid. I don’t know who this “yeshiva bochur” is or which yeshiva he learns in, or if he even exists. There is not a single chareidi minyan, whether in a shul, yeshiva or a lobby, that I have davened in, that has not said tehillim after each tefillah.
And Meirav Leshem-Gonen knows very well who a Chareidi is… She has close bonds with yidden of all “stripes,” who have been a wellspring of life-infusing chizuk.
Anyone who refuses to recognize this powerful display of kol Yisrael areivim zeh lazeh, has broken himself off from the body of klal Yisrael, and is to be pitied.
@anon1m0us
This is utterly false, we have been saying tehillim 3 times a day here in Lakewood in our Yeshivas and Shuls every day since Oct 7.
Why all the hate ? Do you say Tehillim daily?