From Near Death to New Life: Shalom Bar-El's Journey

For a week and a half, Shalom Bar-El lay in the hospital, hovering between life and death. From above, in his mind's eye, he saw everything – the two Arab men who had just thrown a large stone at his head, injuring him severely, and the frightened passersby leaning over him, shouting for someone to call an ambulance, while his body lay motionless on the pavement.

Bar-El (29), married and a father of two from Afula, a former soccer player and national table tennis champion, was working at a large government center in northern Tel Aviv. "That day, I left work at nine in the evening without my phone," he recalls. "Outside, I saw two young men with an Arabic appearance, one short and thin, the other large and intimidating. I didn't pay attention to them until one of them asked me, 'Are you Shalom Bar-El?' I answered 'yes' without understanding who he was and how he knew me. Many thoughts ran through my head at that moment, including momentary fear, which I tried with all my might to suppress."

"You live in Lod, right?" the Arab continued, while the other scanned the surroundings anxiously, probably to ensure no one would witness the wrongdoing about to take place. "They stood very close to me with a satanic and scheming look in their eyes. Slowly, I began to realize this wasn’t accidental. They knew my name, where I live, where I work – and me? I knew nothing about them, had never seen them in my life. That’s when I began to fear. I froze in place, my brain was paralyzed, and I couldn't think of anything."

Then the Arab dropped a bombshell: "Why did you mess with my cousin, who works with you? Because of you, she was almost fired."

Did you know who he was talking about?

"Unfortunately, yes. It was an Arab girl with whom I had a disagreement about seating. It sounds simple, I know, but it's not. You build connections, get used to the people around you, and create a fun and comfortable work environment."

Everyone knew the seats were fixed, but the Arab girl insisted on taking Bar-El's seat and wouldn't budge. "I wasn't angry or anything, but I did ask her to vacate the seat, and when she refused – I found myself arguing with her loudly." Later that day, Bar-El was summoned to a meeting with the company's manager. He explained what happened, but his explanation fell on deaf ears: the manager decreed the Arab girl would stay in his place, and he should find another seat. "If you don’t want to, the door is open. You can leave, just don’t cause an uproar here," she threatened.

He swallowed the insult quietly, moved to a different spot in the office, and thought the matter was closed (or so he believed). But when the Arab named that employee, the penny dropped for him instantly. "I remember starting to apologize and talking nonsense. I said I didn't mean it, that she’s a good girl, and that it was just a silly argument. But once they saw I was yielding to them, they didn’t stop cursing or threatening me."

Shalom Bar-El

What did you do?

"Unfortunately, there wasn't much I could do. The workplace was a dead-end street, and at this late hour, there wasn’t a soul in sight. I couldn't fight them. The only option that seemed logical was to try to appeal to their hearts and pray they'd leave me alone.

"I said 'yes, yes' to everything they said, and in my heart, I swore that if it all passed peacefully, I would never return here again."

At that point, they finally let him go, with cross warnings. "I turned my back to them, feeling that soon it would all be over. Soon, I’d be at the bus stop, on my way home, far from them and that paralyzing fear. But at the same time – another voice within me whispered that it wasn’t over here. A bitter and hard feeling in my heart signaled that something bad was going to happen."

Indeed, before he could take ten steps, the attack came. "One kicked me and punched my ribs, the other took a big stone and threw it on my head forcefully."

His body collapsed to the ground, and blood flowed on the road. But it wasn’t enough for them: they kicked him all over his body and stomped on him brutally to ensure he was dead. "Then I felt I was dying," Bar-El recalls with undiminished pain. "I saw myself from above, but I didn’t know who I was."

By Hashem’s great mercy – within a minute or two, frightened passersby happened by, quickly summoning an ambulance. "They appeared out of nowhere, like angels. I have no other explanation," says Bar-El.

Do you remember anything from the ambulance ride?

"Not much. I knew I was dying, and in a moment – many visions rushed before my eyes. In seconds, I received a lot of information about what happened at the scene, but not only that."

What else?

"I can't explain what I saw in words, but it was like seeing many screens with data from various times, all at once. It was like circles of understanding that closed all at once."

Shalom Bar-El with his daughter

Bar-El expresses his feeling at that moment, saying it’s the closest feeling to the saying coined by Solomon in Ecclesiastes: "He who increases knowledge, increases sorrow." "It’s an unparalleled sorrow for the soul to know everything about everything. Today I also understand why there are so many things we don't see or understand, and what great kindness Hashem does for us in this. One day, a manager from my workplace came to visit me. I was still unconscious then, but with a miraculous insight that I can't explain, I knew exactly what he was feeling in his heart. When he saw me in my condition, he burst into hysterical tears, but I 'heard' his thoughts from above: "As far as I'm concerned, you can die, you're delaying me from going home to my wife and kids." These are things impossible to explain in words, and if I hadn’t 'seen' them with my 'own eyes,' I wouldn’t have believed that’s what he thought. His display of tears and sorrow in front of my parents was just perfect."

After a week and a half in the hospital, which included stitches in his head and a series of rehabilitative treatments – by miracles unmatched – Bar-El managed to recover and slowly return to himself. What has changed in his life since? "Everything," he says resolutely. "First of all, I understood there is a purpose and truth in this world, a way of life established by the Creator – and yes, there is a Creator. I knew this before, believed in Him before, but I never thought one needed to do actual deeds to prove closeness to Him. The incident helped me realize life in this world is too short to waste on trivialities, and it changed my attitude towards everything. I began to strengthen spiritually, observe mitzvot, and desire repentance with all my heart."

Still, when asked if he returned to religion because of the incident – Bar-El vehemently denies it. "I know many people who went through similar incidents and after they recovered – they continued their normal lifestyles without any change. I would've returned to religion even without this because I always believed that religion is the sole truth. The miracles I experienced during this incident and the life I received as a gift – just accelerated the process, that’s all."

Have you visited your former workplace after everything that happened?

Bar-El shakes his head no. "To this day, six years after the incident, I haven't approached it, nor do I want to." After a moment, he adds, "On second thought, maybe I should go there just to bless 'Blessed is He who performed a miracle for me at this place'." After the incident, Bar-El joined a kollel of Torah scholars, where he studied for three years. Soon after, he met his wife through a match, and they married. Since then, not only has he been able to tell his story and strengthen many with words of faith and hope, but thanks to his story and the great miracle that occurred with him, his mother, cousins, and brothers-in-law have also been spiritually strengthened and adopted a strictly religious lifestyle.