The Jewish Spark That Was Awakened in Captivity
A Yid, a ba’al teshuvah, had been distant from Torah and Yiddishkeit. He fought in one of the wars in Eretz Yisrael, and he was captured by Syria and placed in a dark cell. When asked what it was like to sit for months in confinement without seeing the light of day and without exchanging a word for a living soul, he answered, “It is truly very difficult.
But at the same time, a dormant inner emunah is awakened, and it begins to bubble. And this was my introduction to a life of Torah and mitzvos.”
He explained that when everything is removed from the person... all his “successes,” all his desires and lusts... there are no distractions from the news... there is nothing but you. And since there is nothing else, there is nothing that will distract the person from thinking about who he really is. He related that for that period in captivity, he felt an incredible sense of emunah in the Ribbono shel Olam—the likes of which he had never been taught. And after leaving there, he embraced a life of Torah.
