After two years of suffering in the tunnels of Gaza, freed hostage Bar Kuperstein fulfilled his dream of donning tefillin.

Kuperstein turned to the public last week and asked them to join him in a gathering where he will fulfill his two-year dream. “Dear Am Yisrael: I was in captivity for two years—two years during which I dreamed and davened every day that I would be able to put on tefillin. Tomorrow, Friday, at 10 a.m., I am holding a mass hanachas tefillin…Join me, come fulfill my dream with me, come daven together with me. We will lay tefillin for the sake of the release of all of our hostages who are still there.”

Thousands of Jews heeded his call on Friday morning at a gathering at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, where Kuperstein put on tefillin and recited Shema Yisrael, assisted by HaRav Dovid Lau, the former Chief Rabbi of Israel.

During the event, Kuperstein made a brief but powerful speech, saying, “There were some very difficult moments during those two years. But I knew I must not lose myself. I heard my captors praying in Arabic, and I realized that if they’re praying, I must pray even more. If they’re praying despite the murders they committed and believe in, I will pray for life.”

“At first, I wasn’t allowed to make a sound, so I davened silently, from deep inside my heart, from the deepest place possible, where the nefesh is. Later, when they allowed us to speak aloud, we davened aloud and made the tunnels shake.”

“I know that emunah is what brought me back. And I know that our shared emunah will enable us as a society to resume living in a home of hope. Thank you very much to the Borei Olam for this moment, and thank you to Am Yisrael.”

HaRav Lau said, “When people huddled in their safe rooms [during the October 7 massacre] heard voices outside, how did they know if the people outside were Jews who came to save them? When they cried out “Shema Yisrael”—when they heard the Jewish cry inscribed in the tefillin.”

About a year and a half ago, the Chabad Center of Tel Aviv and Bar’s mother, Julie, who became frum years ago, established what became the most famous tefillin stand in Israel—called “Bar Tefillin”—dedicated in the zechus of the return of Bar and the other hostages.

Countless Jews donned tefillin at the stand, which also featured Tehillim pamphlets for each hostage and Shabbos candle-lighting kits for women and girls.

Rabbi Yosef Gerlitzky, a Chabad shliach in Tel Aviv, and his son Rabbi Mendy Gerlitzky, rabbi of the city’s northern neighborhoods, spoke at the event. Bar expressed his deep thanks to the Chabad shlichim and students of the Chabad Yeshiva, who once again came to the square to help thousands of participants put on tefillin.

(YWN’s Jerusalem desk is keeping you updated after tzeis ha’Shabbos in Israel)