"The Bed Was Covered in Glass, If I Hadn't Gotten Up - They Would Have Pierced My Flesh"

If you ask the residents of the south, "Where were you on the morning of Simchat Torah when the alarms started going off?", you'll get a variety of chilling answers reflecting the surprise of the sudden attack that led to the 'Swords of Iron' war. However, in the case of Nachman Shilian, a 19-year-old from Netivot, he provides a different kind of answer.

"During the alarm, I was simply asleep," he explains. "I'm a person who finds it very hard to get up in the morning, especially on Shabbat when I need to get ready and go to synagogue. Even when there are alarms, they don't wake me up, so I don't even remember that this alarm went off. I just continued to sleep."

But other things did wake him up. It was his brothers and brother-in-law. "We are blessed with a large family, thank Hashem, and everyone was getting ready to go to prayer and Hakafot. They came into my room and convinced me to join them. That completely woke me up. I hesitated a bit about whether to go out or keep sleeping, and then I had a thought that it was the morning of Simchat Torah - a holiday that comes only once a year, and what better day to dedicate this day to prayer in the synagogue and reading from the Torah? In the end, I was convinced and went out with my brothers and brother-in-law to pray at the synagogue - about a minute's walk from the house."

"The Loudest Boom I Ever Heard"

"From the moment we arrived at the synagogue, there was a continuous cycle of alarms, a real chaos," Nachman describes. "With every alarm, all the congregants ran to the nearby shelter, and immediately afterward, they returned to pray. Then came the moment, exactly as I was called up to the Torah, another alarm went off, and of course, we all ran to the shelter, when suddenly the loudest explosion I have ever heard happened. We all realized the fall was very close. We went back up to the synagogue, and then I saw my sister running towards me and shouting to me, to my older brother, and to my father: 'Come quickly! A missile hit the house!'"

The minute's walk that separates their house from the synagogue was covered in a matter of seconds. "In those moments, the only feeling you have is immense fear," Nachman describes, "As I've mentioned - we're a large family, and we also had guests at the time. We were very afraid that someone might have been hurt, but when we entered the house, it turned out that by the grace of Heaven, everyone managed to enter the safe room and weren't hurt at all, but the destruction was terrible," he describes. "The entire house was filled with shrapnel and iron. There wasn't a spot that wasn't ruined and broken, but the greatest destruction was in my room, as the missile entered through the ceiling. When I entered the room, I saw an actual hole in the ceiling, and my entire bed was covered in shrapnel and plaster." Nachman pauses for a moment and takes a deep breath. "You can't describe the chills I felt - if I hadn't gotten up and gone to the synagogue, I would have felt the glass against my flesh because I continue to sleep during alarm times," he says with a trembling voice.

Trying to Recover

About two months have passed since this event. Nachman notes that he and his family were, of course, evacuated from their home and have not yet returned. "We are now preparing for the renovations, but it's not easy at all, as we are waiting for approvals from the property tax authority, and then we need to get in touch with the appropriate professionals. A long process awaits us."

There's no doubt that it's not easy to stay out of the house for so long. "But we are not complaining," emphasizes Nachman. "We all feel like we were given a gift of life, and I, personally, have committed to strengthening my getting up for prayers on Shabbat mornings. It's still hard for me during the weekdays, but on Shabbat, I really make sure of it. I've seen with my own eyes how Shabbat protects and saves. I don't need any more proof."