Rom Braslovsky was seized on that horribly historic day and taken to Gaza as a hostage. Nothing was known about his fate for a long time. Rom had been a soldier on leave from his army release, working as a security guard, when he was kidnapped and kept under very austere conditions.
He does not have a 'religious' background whatsoever, but in the course of his captivity he underwent a radical change. His understanding that he had been kidnapped because he was a Jew caused him to be strengthened in emunah and even to withstand difficult ordeals, when his captors demanded that he embrace Islam. When he finally returned home, he was furthered fortified in faith and love for Hashem, and this week, he took another significant step by removing the tattoos which covered his body.
This is what he wrote: "Abba, thank You for enabling me to remove the tattoos on my body. Abba, thank You for my freedom and my happiness. Abba, thank You for the privilege of being a Jew and for not remaining a hostage in Gaza. Thank You for enabling me to make amends. Today, approximately half a year from the moment when Hakodosh Boruch Hu, through miracles and wonders, decided to liberate me from the house of slavery and deliver me from my suffering, and being sufficiently strong and stable, I have resolved to remove my tattoos through painful laser treatment applied directly on my body and to suffer — for a single pure sake — to serve and indenture myself to the Holy One of Holies through corporal pain. I am prepared, again and again, to die through suffering for His sake.
"I will do all in my power to please my Father in Heaven, always. Abba, thank You for the captivity in Gaza and thank You for the suffering I experienced. Thank You for all the difficulty which you introduced in my life. This is part of Judaism. "Shehechiyanu vekiymanu! and thank You for having succeeded in the removal."
During these days, when we pray for the Ultimate Redemption and the rebuilding of the Beis Hamikdash, we regard this as another spark of light which concretizes that even years of an atheistic upbringing cannot extinguish the Jewish spark of the soul. All that is required is someone or something to fan it back to life. Is this not what we pray for during the upcoming Yomim Noraim: "May the wayward ones listen and come, and crown You with the crown of Kingship!"
