Nachman grew up in a Hassidic family, with sidecurls (payos) dangling from around his ears – until he began, little by little, to distance himself from the Torah lifestyle he had lived his whole life. To his parents’ great consternation, Nachman soon found himself having nothing to do with Torah. Today, it is hard to imagine that this 25-year-old man with tattoos actually grew up with a Hassidic education. He called me one day and related with great emotion his story of this past half-year [since the war in Gaza began]:

He and some friends went to the ill-fated Nova party outside Gaza on the night of Simchat Torah. Early in the morning, when the Hamas rocket attacks began, they got in their car and tried to flee. But they quickly met up with several terrorists shooting at them from all directions. Somehow they escaped and made their way to some type of protective concrete structure and hid there for a while with other people. Terrorists arrived there as well, and again somehow Nachman and his friends were able to escape. They then drove on dirt roads through fields and arrived at Kibbutz Be’eri, which was teeming with terrorists – who were busy shooting at soldiers who had arrived to defend the residents! The terrorists paid no attention to Nachman and his friends, who were then able to escape for yet a third time. They drove to the city of Sderot, where once again, with G-d’s Providence, they managed to escape another encounter with terrorists. Finally, they were able to get home safe and sound. Reviewing the day’s events, Nachman felt instinctively that G-d had truly been watching over him, and he took upon himself to observe some Torah commandments. However, he didn’t – and the pledge remained unfulfilled.

Nachman continued his story: “I recently underwent a very serious car accident – from which I once again came out safe and sound. This time I said to myself: ‘That’s it, G-d is giving me signal after signal, and He’s leaving me no choice…’ I decided and resolved that from then on, I will put on tefillin each day – but now the problem is that I have no idea where to start. I don’t even know where my old ones are!”

I of course told him that I would happily get him a pair, and thank G-d I was able to get him a beautiful set of high-quality tefillin, straight to his home!