Project Inspire TB 2025 Full Sasha Trufanov Interview

Sasha, I'm Yasi Freriedman, executive director of project inspire and I had a the great honor a year ago to sit down with your mother in kibbutz near the backdrop really of the kibbutz how it looked then and I just want to thank you for doing this interview. I know that it's it's been a whirlwind since but I don't think that you could possibly comprehend how inspiring you are. Not that you're trying to be and not that you see yourself as that person, but you just being you are an extremely inspiring individual and I know that myself as well as many tens of thousands that'll be watching this video are very inspired by you as a person. >> I hope I will inspire some people. It's uh the only thing I can do with what happened in order to make it a little bit better because you cannot erase the past but you can control the future and what you're doing with what happened to you. >> Wow. So I also want to mention that Danielle Hass who was really coordinating this out of Israel and she is a woman who you obviously wanted to be here with me but she said that your mother continues to be an inspiration for her. She is really her hero. She's in touch with her through the good through the bad and so she too is is a real inspiration for many people as well. >> Yeah she is much better than me. She is a very kind loving person. She became much more connected to her roots and to other people. She really really really their only objective in life right now is to do good to other people. She really believes that Hashem has a plan for everybody and hers is to bring as much strength, hope and good things to people by sharing her story, her way of dealing with that. and she always happy to go to events. Although it's hard for her this traveling and everything, she goes and talks to people and shares her story and it's amazing to see. >> She really is trying to reach as many people as she can. >> We'll get to you in a minute, but when was speaking about your mother, did she become a person that you almost don't recognize throughout this whole story? >> Yeah, my mother changed dramatically before October 7. She was very private person. She didn't really like to be engaged with other people. She had that little team with me, her and her father and me a little bit. I wasn't so involved as a grownup and you know I had my things going and they were together. They were a big team and that's all they needed. And after what happened in October 7, my dad's passing and everything, h something changed together with her internal change and her growth as an individual become a much more believer in God and becoming much more connected to their inner self and in a way finding her course in life and their her purpose as she sees it and her view of life changed so drastically. She also find a lot of comfort in other people's love, affection towards her. A lot of people helped her during this tough time. She could not do it along. Not only my girlfriend, which is now my fiance also. Thank you. Also friends who become real friends. People didn't know her really connected to her and become real friends that are still today helping her. Not in the way, you know, she they see as as a poor soul. Actually, they see as stronger than everybody else that but the thing is that they really are connected to her and trying to be friends with her and she's trying to be friends with them. And you know, it's it's amazing to see how her circle of people that are knowing her, care about her, and with her grew so much. And I think that it's a reflection of her inner growth before that. Part of her being so private, part of her being so not approachable towards other people made other people not to approach her and made her life closer. When she opened up well from within towards other people when she felt a lot of confidence of herself of what she is and to be vulnerable in front of other people to want other people to feel better to do good for them as well. people felt the same way towards her and it's it became like a thing that feeds itself and I can see it with my mother is a great example of a person who decided I'm going to open up to other people. I don't know if she did it consciously or she just did it from her emotions and how things involved. But I can say to you that I think that it's worth work both ways. It cannot just start from one of them. It's not only consciously and not only your feelings and emotions. It should start from within as a process and it's such a beautiful thing and she affected so many people and so many people talk about it but I think that not many people talk about how many pe how much people affects her and how much she learned from them and how much strength they gather from them and how she's grateful for everybody's help and the people who supported her in this difficult time. So, I think it's a good time to say in her voice, although it's me saying it, but I know she she would say that that it's a big thank you for everybody that contributes to her being able to handle everything she needed to and support her in this difficult time. >> Wow. S, could you take us back October 7th in you were living in the Tel Aiv area and you came to visit uh to be with your mom for for the holiday? Well, my mom and my dad uh we came me and Sapir to the kibuts on Friday, October 6. Actually, as usual, we would come once every two weeks, something like that. At that weekend, I didn't want to come. I felt a big big a big a strong feeling of not wanting to be there. I don't know why. I don't see I don't think I foreshadow it. Nobody could. But I just didn't want to be there in the kiboots. I really didn't. But Sappir convinced me to come and I agreed of course and we came. I met with my friends there. I met with of course my parents. We had a shishi dinner. Then I went to see my friends and we woke up on Saturday in morning when rocket start firing at us. It wasn't the first time. I wasn't so nervous about it. It happened before. I was pretty used to that. Unfortunately, we didn't have a safe room in the guest room we were staying at and I knew you visited. So, we didn't have any other choice. I just told relax. It's going to it's going to stop. And when it didn't, I say, well, it's maybe better to take cover in the safest place we have in the room, which is near the wall in the corner of the room. And we put the bed above us because if the rocket will fall on the on the concrete above, we will not be hurt or die from the debris that is falling. We didn't have any other option. We couldn't find any spare moment to go to my parents safe room. And we wait it out. >> Ju just so that people understand it's it's like 20 m. >> It's like aerial 20 m but in Yeah, it's something it's very close. >> It was ongoing. I means your your mother was was looking at your guest room entrance from the window of her that's how close it was and yet there was no break that was long enough for you to even get there. >> Yeah. We felt that it's not worth the risk. We didn't know what is going what is going on in the kibuts. We couldn't imagine the terrorist will get inside. Actually I started getting text messages from my friends at the beginning. They were concerned about what is happening. They saw in the news but they didn't know about the terrorists. One of my friends who is in the Greek reaction force of the kibbuts, the force that is responsible of guarding the kibuts is and there are not many of them and he wasn't present in the kibuts. A lot of them got killed and kidnapped or just killed in October 7 trying to protect the kibuts and fighting the f the war that nobody else could have fought because the army wasn't there. He sent me a message. He wasn't the kibbutz at that time but he got messages from this kit and quick reaction force and he told me there are terrorists in other kibbuts in kibbutz berry and then he told me there are terrorists as well in the kibbuts and I said wow it's a new thing I'm not prepared for that but I couldn't imagine the magnitude of the situation I thought okay maybe a unit maybe eight 10 maximum terrorist got inside the kibuts how many can they be and I thought that the army will come. I didn't imagine that all the south like all the envelope sorry the angaza envelope area is being attacked at the same time. I thought that we are the unlucky ones and terrorists came towards us. Anyway, my mother after a while sent me a message about the tourists going in front of their house. As Annu stated, it's very close to the guest room we were staying at. I knew that they are closed before this message. a little bit. Me and Sabir started to hear voices uh screams and and and shots and everything and we had an argument. I thought the arm is fighting those terrorists and we are hearing some Hebrews, some Arabic, something like that. She said, "No, it's only Arabic. They are the terrorists. They are the Arabs." Said, "No, no, it cannot be. There must be army fighting them." And a little bit before they started breaking the door open, I remember that I heard sounds of engines like motors. In the beginning, it was a car, a vehicle. Said that's a little bit weird, but maybe it's a vehicle of the army. But then I heard a sound of a motorcycle. And that's the moment I said, well, this is a problem. There shouldn't be a motorcycle driving around the kibuts at that time. Army don't have drive around with motorcycles. And after a very short uh period of time, we started hearing the the tourist trying to beg the door of our guest room. And I remember sincere sense of fear, shock, unability to think. I couldn't do anything. I didn't have any way to protect myself. Of course, not as well. >> Just so the viewer understands, the entire guest room is a room. >> It's a room. >> It's a room with a little, if I remember, a little kitchenet. It was like a hot water in the front. >> 6 foot 6 ft or 6 ft. Something like that. Very small. >> So there's nowhere to go. >> No way to go. Nowhere to go. Not there's nowhere to go. There is no way to protect yourself. I don't have any arms. I'm not a position in this room to I don't know how to operate a weapon. But even if I had one, I will figure out how to operate it. But the room built in the way that I cannot even protect myself. One grenade thrown to the room. We are both dead. It's so small. So I knew that there is no way to fight it out and I had no means to do that as well. Thank God because maybe if I did because of the sense fear and shock and stress and desire to get out of the situation, maybe I would choose a stupid way of trying to fight it out and we'll both die eventually. >> I want to ask you one question about that. What happened is what happened. But do you ever stop and realize that in that tiny room with all these terrorists flooding that little room there were gunshots if I remember in the door? >> Yeah. >> In the how water earn in the kitchen which means this was like a foot or two from where you were. Do you realize what a miracle it is that you're alive? So I will tell you the real miracle because the terrorist that came at least as it seems at the beginning would have killed us because they couldn't break the door but they didn't have guns because if they did they will shut the lock and they left but after a minute or two they came back immediately shut the lock and got inside which means that probably some ter armed terrorist joined them and the terrorists that came at the beginning weren't actually from any organization They were like civilians. And what happened in this room is that the first terrorist who came was a harmed terrorist from Islamic jihad. Sappiril was in a covers in the covers. So she couldn't see but I saw under the bed his boot and his got inside the room. He found us very quickly as you said. It's a very small room. He took us out from the place we were. I immediately stood up and put my hands up and trying to started telling him in English because I didn't knew Arabic at that moment that we are civilians. Leave us alone that we are innocents. He didn't care. He started shouting things in Arabic and he called a bunch of other terrorists that were waiting outside. As I remember it, another terrorist armed one came and a bunch of terrorists that were with not armed but with knives and things like that came as well and they started making mayhem in the room and you know shouting and screaming and everything. I understand that he's not going to leave us alone. So at that point me and Sappi weren't wearing much clothes because we slept before. She was wearing a very small pajama. There is a photo of her actually very viral on a bike that there is a girl on a bike holding her head and there are terrorists in front and in the back and she's in the field like driving. It's her and I was very concerned about being her being taken this way or being seen this way. I didn't know what they going to do to her. I didn't want them to see her this way. I started to tell them bring your clothes. Bring your clothes in English and they were shouting things in Arabic. I would I will tell her I will tell them bring your clothes. In the end, what happened is that they throw a pair of jeans at me, which is was mine. She could not wear it. It's much bigger than hers than her though. So, I put it on and they told me, "Get on the ground like tell me like with the with the gun and with hand gestures." And so, I did and I kept saying them, "Give her clothes. Give her clothes." One of the from behind, the one without the gun, decided that it's taking too long. So, he punched me in the face. In that point, I understood that things are not it's getting worse and worse. They're losing patience. They're losing the ability to understand what I'm saying. They're it's not it's not going anywhere. Yeah. They're getting frustrated. >> So, I got up and she was taken by the tourist out of the room as she was and I got out and was taken by other terrorists. On the way out from the room, like on the entrance, one of the terrorists from behind decided to stab me. He actually tried to kill me in the end because when I when I got stabbed first in the left shoulder from behind, I didn't understand it a stab. It felt like a very strong concentrated punch. I felt like I didn't understand what is going on. If I would be punched, I would not turn around because I felt something weird. I never felt this kind of pain before. And I turn around and I see him with a gun with like a face very like angry and all under terrorist holding his hand and trying to stop him from killing me from stabbing me even more. So for this reason I said before that if those people will come at the beginning we will be dead because they didn't want to take us alive. They just wanted to kill us. Even when I was walking I already been taken. There is no danger from me. He wanted to kill me because he didn't want me to be taken alive. And I remember that Sapir was separated from me a little bit after we got out from the room. She was taken a little bit to the right as I remember by another group of people and I was then my head was taken down so I would not look around and I was moved ahead around maybe 30 m uh towards a motorcycle. Actually the motorcycle was parked on the safe room of and near the safe room of Simanto family which is the family where they just killed all of them. They killed the mother, the father and the babies. They were just 30 m from us. I didn't understand what is going on. As I said, I was in very complete shock and panic and stress and I just thought how I can get myself and Sappir out of the situation. at least I can get some out of it. I didn't want her to be taken away. Of course, I didn't want to be taken away as well, but I felt like a sense of responsibility towards her as well like I should protect her. And I decided because I thought that there is the only group of terrorists that in the kibuts and we are the unlucky ones. At least this is what I thought to shook myself from this group and run the opposite direction from where I saw they took appear. I thought that by this way I will give them an incentive to run after me. she will maybe can get out of this group and to go to the army which I didn't know where it was but I thought it's in the direction that she was taken to at least a general direction but immediately when I shook myself from those terrorists and I started running and lift my head up I saw that the different case than what I felt at the beginning I saw so many terrorists in front of my eyes destroying porches lighting things on fire trees um everything and only in 50 m run something like said before I got stopped in front of my parents' house by two other armed terrorists. This is what I saw and I understood that the situation is far worse than I thought. The group that was holding me before and took me towards the bike immediately when I started running, they started shooting at me. They didn't hit me because I was running but they chased me and I was stopped by those two armed terrorists and they catch up to me. I turned around towards them and I lift my hands again and they just shout things in Arabic and then they shoot me in both of my legs. Fortunately, the bullet in the right leg pierced only the flesh and the muscles. So, it didn't it hurts but not as much and I could still stand. But when the bullet in the left leg hit me immediately I felt a sharp very strong pain and I fell to the ground because the bone broke completely and my leg bent. At that point I when I fell to the ground they also hit me with the back of the rifle in the back of my head and opened it up. They tied my hands behind my back after all of this. Although I couldn't do anything. The pain was enormous and also I was pretty numb because all the hits that I got and they told me like get up, get up and I tried but I couldn't. I thought myself, I have to get up. If I'm not going to get up in this moment, I will die. But I couldn't. And I said, I can't like in in English. And they just pick me up and put me on a motorcycle. And all of this is happening in front of my parents' porch. And then they put something on my head so I would not see. But unfortunately, I could see everything. And when I was driving through the kibuts, because my parents house was in the middle, I saw so many houses of people that are now deceased or not all of them, but a lot of them are deceased being burned. I knew them very well. They the people that I grew up with like people that when I grew up were in the kibuts. All of them are older than me, but some of them are very old. Some of them are like 50s. Perches burning, houses burning, terrorist running around destroying everything. When we got out of the kibuts on the way, I told the terrorist like from the back. He told me, "It's okay. You're okay." I said, "No, just kill me and that's it. I don't want to go through that." I thought that I'm already dead. I was so wounded. I thought they don't want to take care of me. just going to take a video of me posted I'm I'm alive and just kill me because I didn't thought they would have the will to deal with me even a little bit. I remember that. I told him, "Just leave. Just kill me. Leave. Sappear. Let her go. Just take me. I don't care. But let her go." When we got to the border, which is not far, like a 10-minute drive, even less. >> You could see it from the back basically from the back of your mind. >> I would drive there with bikes a lot of time. There was a lot of fields and orange fields. And >> I think people don't realize just how close >> you could literally see it across the field. >> Yeah. When I was a kid, I had a telescope like a small one. It's not very good. But I would look at Gaza from Iiky Boots to see what is going on. I couldn't see much and I didn't understand what I'm saying. But >> that's how close it is. >> Yeah. Very close. >> Wow. >> 2.7 km. And near the border the bike fell. And I don't remember seeing much because I was in such a pain and I couldn't really understand what is going on. But I remember the voices of people starting gathering around me and shouting things in Arabic. And only after I understood that there were a lot of civilians celebrating and taking pictures of being on the other side of the border and everything and they started gathering around me and they I I started feeling kicks and punches and everything. I didn't feel pain at that moment. I felt so much pain anyway. It wasn't like anything close to being >> they weren't hurting you. >> Yeah. They weren't hurting me as being shot in the leg and you know it was a different kind of pain. But I felt the punches and everything. I said to myself, >> well this is the place I'm going to die but at least I'm not in such a pain. So I said, "Well, this is it." But actually the terrorists themselves separated me from this crowd and they needed to put me in a vehicle. They drove me to Gaza. At first they put me in house, mended my leg. They they bandage all my wounds, my head, my shoulder, and my right leg. and the left leg. What they did is put two sticks and wrap it around with a rope so it wouldn't move so much. Then they moved me from this place to another place. In that place they gave me a sort of IV h because I was so dehydrated and I lost so much blood and they took out the sticks and exchange it with a grill piece from the oven. There is a grill thing, the grill net. They cut it to shape and they bend it and wrap it around my leg. And this is the way I was for a week. And the problem with that is first of all the bandage itself they wrap it around with is elastic. So it doesn't really holds the leg. So every time I needed to go to the bathroom and I will jump on one leg, my leg would move. It will be very painful. The second thing is that this grill thing gets inside your flesh. So it's pressing it and after being like that for day after day it's get inside your flesh and it's very painful but the pain wasn't the problem although it's very hard to sleep like that it's very hard to go through day by day like that and I didn't have any painkillers any nothing the problem is that in a normal situation when this this kind of thing happened to even when you break your leg you go to a hospital and then you you go to your family someone taking care of you helps you a little bit you understand that you're in a situation with people that not want to help you. You understand that you need to minimize as much as you can the way the the help you're getting. You actually think about how many times I will go to the bathroom. I don't want to eat that much because although they at the the beginning at this first week I had three meals a day. I would not eat much because I didn't want to go to the bathroom. I didn't want to to be a burden and it's very hurts to sit on the toilet when your leg is bending a little bit and you need to and you didn't want to go through that. you didn't you don't want to drink so much because you don't want to go to the bathroom and be a burden because you cannot get up by yourself. Your other leg is also hurts. It's not as the the left leg, but it's still being shot as well. And it's it takes some time for the wound to heal so you can jump on it. So, you need someone to take to carry you. And it's it's painful. But in a weird way, the pain was an escape for me uh from sometimes from the mental state that I needed to deal with because I also understood that from now I'm maybe not going to see my family again, maybe not going to see my loved ones again. And I knew that Sappir was taken and I hope that she's still alive, but I knew that my family is also all killed or being taken. My grandmother was in the kibuts. I knew that for sure she would not be able to hold the end all of the of the safe room. So she will be taken and my parents I didn't know what happened to them but I really feared that they will be killed and actually my father got killed that day. I didn't have nobody to share this with. I couldn't complain. I couldn't I I showed sometimes weakness because sometimes I cried but I tried not to do it as much because every time I did it I I felt that I showing a way to be bugged and I didn't want to had more hardships on myself. I needed to depict myself as strong as I could and it was very hard >> and I couldn't understand what is going on because I didn't know Arabic and all of them talk in Arabic and you you don't have a way of understanding what happening. You don't know have a way to have a connection. You don't have any way of sharing your feelings or thoughts and depression and despair. You along with this with a group of people that is guarding you is doing everything for you is the ones that responsible for everything that happening in your life right now even death and they don't want to do the good job >> which is a very very hard situation. Yeah, it's very it's a very hard situation to be in. >> Sasha, you're you're depicting a a situation where I think everybody watching this is wondering like it didn't get better after that. meaning the more loneliness and more being on your own and more not knowing of when and if this is ever going to end and not knowing what happened to your family. How did you find the courage, the faith, the determination to be able to see this through? What were some things that helped you get to a place that you you were able to handle this and come out? >> Yeah. So I think that I had a very rough start and it became harder and harder and being alone in this very hard scenario and very hard conditions actually contribute a lot to this growth and mental growth and spiritual growth that helped me a lot because the incentive at the beginning was trying to find a way to ease myself a little bit to find a way to escape from this hardships in this physical war that I'm experiencing and my mental struggle that I needed to deal with and I needed to grow my strength and I couldn't find a way. I didn't know how to do it and I tried every day after the first week I was taken to a hospital and then was brought to a new place and I started learning Arabic there which I gathered a way of communicating but also I learned a little bit what happened in October 7 and everything like that. So, it was a good important step towards making it better, but it only was a way to make me feel a little bit calmer, but it was far away from making me cope with the situation. And I thought what I can do, what I can do, and during the days that I were alone, I thought a lot about my family, my girlfriend, a little bit about my friends, what what I did in my life and everything went away very fast. And I never prayed before. I wasn't subjected to any orthodox religious content before in my life. Only in the army I met people that are religious but I never talked a lot about this subject. A little bit but not so much. Of course I didn't know how to pray. I didn't know what is psalms is what is timma. I never opened this book before. I never I never seen it in other someone's house before. I think this kind of not connected. But I started thinking about them and I started in a way kind of praying. I found myself saying I should structure it around. And I started praying and I said to myself after a while, why why are you praying? You don't believe in God. You never believed in him. But in a weird way, I I said I was very honest with myself. I said, I have nothing to lose. You know, sometimes in life, we are not honest with ourselves because we want to depict kind of a picture toward other people. You're doing yourself a calculation about what good you are doing, what bad. And I was very honest with myself. I said this is maybe my last moments at least let me be honest with myself I have nothing to lose I don't need to show myself towards nobody only towards the tourists that were guarding me but I was alone for many hours so I could just shift what I'm depicting towards our side and I started thinking and I said wow it's I don't know why but it's very helpful I'm ging a lot of calmness it always recalibrate my compass when I sometimes frustrated and everything I kind of escape from this frustration And I value a little bit more what I have by thinking about them, by trying to hope and pray for their safety, for their wellness and being and everything and of course for my own. But I felt it really helps me to cope with that. And after a while I started thinking about life itself and what our purpose in this life because I said to myself I thought about well I used to think a lot about waking up doing things for myself advancing work how I'm going to what I'm going to eat and go to sleep. It sounds like an animal. >> I described an animal in the end. And I I'm not about work, but you know, I only tried to accumulate more to myself. I look at work as trying to accumulate myself. I didn't look at it as trying to do better for other people. And I felt that all of this went away. It didn't matter after what happened to me on October 7, everything. And I saw my life is ending. It didn't matter. And I told myself no. I understood that the only thing that really matters is how much you affect and do for your close family and friends but also towards other people in general and how much you pursue the things you find important in life. And I think this is one of the godliness we have in this world that everyone is different which means everybody have different purpose and different appeals, different things you want to change in this world, different things you want to correct. And I believe that if you are pursuing your intuition towards it, you are fulfilling your purpose. >> And this is what was coming to you while you were there. >> A lot of reflection about life, about what I experienced on my own for the 27 years I had before dealing with the fact that I'm going to die. Not a lot of people have a long period of time to be alone before death. >> A lot of people actually before death starts to try and do things and be with their family. I was forced before death in a sense to be alone and reflect about life and do things that will eventually lead me to these understandings >> and you were in a position where at any moment that can come. >> Yeah, I was accepting that actually after Sapir and my mother and my grandmother was released gave me a lot because every time I wanted to complain I I understood that I prayed so much for their release for their return. So it gave me a lot of strength to say okay I got what I wanted but now you cannot complain anymore. You are not going to complain about anything. And every time I had hardships and I had so many things going through when I was there in the captivity I told myself no you got what you wanted you you wanted for them to get out. Your life will be given to you I hope but if not you cannot be angry about it. It's not the way the words works. Not everybody lived to 120. And you need to try and say thank God you had the opportunity to be more aware of godliness in the world and be very happy about what you did experience in 27 years to appreciate what you have and the ability to have those was 70 days hungry days I don't know >> those days to really do something good towards your family and for loved ones because in the end I felt that maybe because I prayed for them a little bit and I really tried from my heart for my soul to do something good for them. It helped for their release and I said I did something good in my life and this one is marked for me. It's like important and it's it's something that goes on with me and it was amazing thing. >> Sasha, you come out of captivity 5 >> 498 >> 498 days of captivity to a world that you might not have known prayed for you every day. So many thousands of people around the world did everything in their power and around the world. What did that mean to you knowing that while you were going through this all you really weren't alone in some sense because there were thousands and thousands of people who were with you? When I was there I thought that went on with their life. I started depicting what she's doing in my head thinking maybe she got returned to work maybe she's doing this and that. After a while, I even thought that she's not waiting for me anymore. But if I thought about this for about Sappiran, I didn't think that anybody in the world would care so much about us, the hostages, and will pray for us and think about us daily. And I couldn't imagine. And when I came out, I learned about it in Israel and they told me, my friends and family told me you, you know, many people cared about you, you know, how many people like know you because they prayed for you, they thought about you daily and I said, no. And they told me, "You are famous now." I said, "Wow, I don't know. I didn't I don't care about being famous. I don't want to be famous." But I cared about people caring for me. I cared about people praying for me, although they didn't know me. And the more I got out there and be interacting with people and learned how deep they got, they learned so much about me. They really knew who I am. They so emotional when they meet me. I said to myself, "Wow, I believe in humanity." In a sense, what happened to me in October 7 and everything that followed made me a little bit be frustrated with humanity. I said, "This is humanity. This is what we have. Wars, fights, killing, hatred. But when I came out and saw the love, the free love that I got from people that didn't know me, it gave me this hope in humanity, even more than I hoped for. And it gave me so much strength to heal and so much desire to go out there and spread the story to make people more people aware about what happened in October 7 and everything that followed. But most importantly to strengthen people in their own life challenges and to make them more aware of what they may do to improve their situation and encourage them to connect more to their soul. It's very important people go to the gym. It's important go to the gym but it's also important to feed your soul, feed your internals like it gives you more strength than you believe. It gives you more value to life than you believe. It gives you a guidance and in the end everybody wants purpose. Go and ask every person you know what is matters in life. He will tell you family and purpose because this is what the things you need when you get to your death time. You want to know that you fulfill your purpose and you try to do it at least. >> I can tell you that in my family when we were watching the video clips of you being released in that process, we cried tears of joy like I don't remember us doing before and we were not the only ones. What does that tell you about Israel? >> That it has a big family. It is a big family. It's a family that shows his strength in hard times and sometimes when things are good, we do not see it and we start to fight between each other as family does and this is one of the signs that we are family right nobody in the family always goes along because we feel that we can say whatever we want. We feel free to express our opinions but sometimes we also forget that we need to love each other. Sometimes we forget that we need to hear the other's opinion and not be frustrated about this opinion because maybe I can learn something from him and he can learn something from me >> and this brought that out in a really in a really strong way. >> Yeah. >> Rab Lazar was in Israel for the wedding of his own daughter. Tell me about the time you met Rab Lazar right after being released and putting on film with Rab Lazar. So immediately when I came out I think a day after he was in a wedding in Israel and he came to see me and I came I didn't know who he is. I saw a rabbi and his wife and his kid and he gave me such a big hug like he was so happy about my release and of course his wife was so emotional about it and his family and everything and I didn't know this this man but my mother told me he did so much for you and everything and I was immediately when you see him maybe because I came out of captivity and I was used to seeing so many new terrorists every time I learned to pick up a sense of who is who when I saw him immediately I said wow this is a great guy. This is a good person. This is a great soul. Like I I saw it immediately and I hugged him willingly although I didn't know him and we did a pictures and everything and of course he said would you like to put Phil in? And I don't know I I never put Phil in before but with him it felt right. I said, "Yeah, why not?" Of course. And we did it. And I prayed. I really prayed at this moment. I did my first for my heart, you know, to get the other out. I really hope that they will get eventually be able to feel the same joy and happiness that I had with their families. And the ones who are deceased, I wish that they will return home so we can be buried and their families can close a circle. At least every place to mourn. I can say about my father that being able to go to a grave and it's hard at first when I saw his pictures and everything, I always cried. It was very hard for me to hold my feelings. But it's good that you can feel that you have a place that you know that he is there and you can come >> which I don't know if everybody watching which wasn't the case right away. >> Well I don't know I was in captivity but it took some time to build it. Yeah. >> Both to find him and to relocate him and and all that. >> Yeah. >> Final question for you Sasha cuz I'm I'm so emotional from just even your your journey and I think you you touched on is that it gives so many people and whatever situation they're in to know there is hope and that we are one family. We might fight but we are one family. Today people are watching this on tab. Shabb is a day that we focus on is because the beta mdash was destroyed because of having gone through what you've gone through the ups the downs the connection your mother's connection your connection what message would you let Israel know is important for them to take today so I think we is need to be more connected to its roots and tradition it's first we need to be connected in order to understand we are family and what exactly a family you know even the 12 tribes wasn't getting along all the time but they knew that they are family and try together to do something with their own strengths to collaborate and this is the beauty of being different a little bit but being able to collaborate together to do something greater and more beautiful and also from the tradition and the heritage that we have we can learn so many things about life and becoming a better person at least from within ourselves and and you spread out more goodliness, more um care and you are because you are healthier from inside. you'll be able to heal other people from inside as well and be more patient and be more tolerant and be more and be able to listen to other people and not be always trying to prove your points which is very important I think in nowadays when everything is like out there Instagram you are right you are right no just listen to other people and learn something from them come with this kind of agenda and be more vulnerable towards people be more out there try to um connect to people around you. Try to share love, free love. I got so much free love and it helped me so much. You didn't People don't understand how much it helped me and my mother and my girlfriend and my fiance and everybody. And it helps so much. People don't understand. It's not You don't need to buy it. It's not a material thing, but it's worth even more. So, I encourage people to do that. And I hope that after what we experienced in October 7 and this horrifical events and the war that was going on and so many people lost their lives, soldiers, hostages, civilians, everything. We will take this time and we'll tell ourselves we have enemies. We always had and we always will and we as family need to stick together. This is our strength. The unity is not about being all together the same. It's about contributing each other with each own strengths and overcome the disadvantages of each one of us. So I hope that people will connect more, learn more about Judaism and tradition and become a better person day by day. Sasha, I just want to take this opportunity to wish you mazalto. Wish you both physically well, emotionally well, and you should continue to fulfill all your endeavors and continue to be an inspiration to all of Israel. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Kazak. cuz uh