The response of Lena Trufanov – whose only child, Sasha, is in captivity in Gaza – to the unimaginable horrors she endured and is still enduring since October 7 is truly inspirational – she became a ba’alas teshuvah and is now Shomer Shabbos and kashrus.

On October 7, Lena and her husband were at their home on Kibbutz Nir Oz. Sasha, who was visiting, was sleeping at the guest house across from her house. By the end of that day, her husband had been murdered and her house burned to the ground. Lena, Sasha, and her mother, who lived in a separate home on the kibbutz, had been taken into Gaza.

Lena and her mother were returned to Israel in November but Sasha remains in captivity.

Despite these horrors, or as Lena said, because of them, she has embraced emunah and is now Shomer Shabbos and kashrut.

Lena told Channel 14 News that she began keeping Shabbos when she returned from captivity “because I saw so many things that I couldn’t describe as just coincidental.”

“I mamash saw a hand leading, the hand of Hakadosh Baruch Hu in the incidents I witnessed,” she said. “I began to keep Shabbos and kashrus and I daven – and that’s what gives me strength.”

“Because what else do I have? My husband was murdered that day and I still don’t know how he was killed. My house was burned. And my son – my only child – is still in captivity. So what do I have? Only to hope and daven that he’ll return.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)