Hersh's last words 311 nights ago: ‘I love you, see you tomorrow’

Intro Rachel Goldberg Poland shalom shalom mother of hsh was being held hostage in Gaza Strip for 310 days you know Rachel throughout the the past few weeks we were hearing more and more testimonies from that that specific incident where anir shapira her's friend was killed and others many others were killed and where he was taken from what could you tell us about what you experienced through those hours he even texted you 811 exactly right so we our duti our family HS came to us a couple years ago and said he's not going to be keeping Shabbat the way that we keep Shabbat for now um he's always been very respectful within that painful moment um and so he had said on October 6th I'm going to come with you to bit knesset I'm going to come with you to Shabbat dinner we were walking right of of course and um he came with us and he said but I'm bringing my back back because after dinner I'm going to go with anir who was his best friend um and we're going to go do something fun we're going to go camp somewhere and we said fine I'm very happy that he still wants to do things uh like that so he came with us to bessed he danced with the Torah um he came with us to Shabbat dinner right at 11:00 he kissed John he kissed me he turned around in the doorway and he looked at me and said I love you see you tomorrow and that was 311 nights ago uh the next morning Shabbat morning John left for bid knesset at 7:30 because he is was The Gabby at our Sho and um as you know that's a very complicated day for a gabbi I was going to come a little bit later with my girls at around 8:00 I heard the um bomb Sirens going off so I woke my girls we got into our mlat and we waited to minutes we didn't hear anything we came out now normally I don't use any sort of Technology on Shabbat but I knew somewhere in the country there are rockets falling and I knew the boys were sleeping outside so I said to my girls I'm turning on my phone it's p NE I have to make sure Hersh is okay I turned on my phone at 8:23 two whatsapps popped up that had come in simultaneously at 811 from hirs to to John and me we have a group just the three of us the first text said I love you and the second one said I'm sorry we now know from the recording that was just released two weeks ago from the migun that at 810 is when hirs says in lead I lost my hand and so he was texting us with his other hand because I think he thought he was dying so he was was saying goodbye I love you and I'm sorry he knew that we were going to be in a lot of pain and we know from the witnesses that shortly after that was when um the gunman came in and ordered hirsh and uh three of the other young men to stand up and come outside and when he stood up that's when everyone was able to see that his dominant arm his left arm from the elbow down had been blown off um and that's uh that's where we this alternate universe that we live in now we met you in Washington with the Prime Minister there what could you tell us about your activity I mean every single day I open my eyes from a very poor four if I'm lucky four hours of sleep um I say ma Ani I say let today be the day and I say now pretend to be a human and I put on this costume of a person and I try to run to the ends of the Earth to save my only son hirh and um every single day it's try to educate and Advocate um especially in the Foreign Press um my Hebrew is not very good but my English is decent and um we're constantly trying to explain to the world who are these hostages what is this hostage situation and we're constantly trying to speak to anyone who can move the needle and affect the situation that we all currently find ourselves under so whether that's running to speak to different leaders of countries out in the open or quietly or speaking to the pope or speaking to very influential people with power in different countries who aren't in governments we do every single thing we can possibly think of while keeping in mind we obviously know that it will come from Hashem it will come from H but this is our this is our effort and we're doing every sing that every single thing that we can possibly do to contribute to the effort while also obviously doing and doing constantly throughout the day in MIM now in terms of the world how much The world is it becoming more and more challenging difficult in terms of the way the world is you know relating to Israel it seems much more difficult but coming from your standpoint do you also feel it I actually have found that the more that time goes on and the more that we explain the situation to people the more support we are getting from the outside world which is unusual um we get thousands thousands of of messages every single day to the point where we have someone full-time who works with us who helps to answer those messages because we have been so blessed with people around the world starting to understand that this is not a monolithic homogeneous group of people this is an extremely diverse group of people the 115 remaining hostages hail from over 20 different countries they are Christ Christians Jews Muslims Hindus and Buddhists the world doesn't know that once they find that out they want to understand more W now in terms of uh the deal the deal to rescue the hostages The deal what could you tell us first of all what you know where it's holding really well we're not any more privy I think than most normal people I think that we understand that we don't know all of the details of the deal which is why it was surprising that we hear such voracious voices coming out to say were were anti-ideal in general in life my father always said listen to what someone's giving you and then decide what you think so I think it's a little bit premature to shut down altogether an idea of a deal we back in November when we were told before the first deal that resulted in over a hundred people coming home we were told very unequivocally hirh will not be in this deal we said do it save who you can what we do know about this deal is it is for everyone they do it in gradually look gradually I also wish they would put 115 people on the border and they can do the deal all in once but the option is this is the deal or there's no deal I say this is our way to get our people home it's been 310 days I don't know how much longer schomo Mansour who is 87 years old has to wait for a deal or how much longer Ariel and K bbas have to wait for a deal or how much longer this this part of of our population and again it's a it's a very diverse group of people have to keep waiting for a deal I think this is a deal that that prime minister Netanyahu presented in May at the end of May that President Biden elucidated for the world at the very end of May I I trust that if prime minister Netanyahu presented this and that we're hearing from all different voices in our security establishment that this is the deal to proceed with so I trust those voices and Rachel how do you answer The price those who fear fear the price when it in terms of releasing terrorist in terms of ending the war the price for this hostage deal well first I would say that I think that hirsh and the other 114 hostages have paid the price they've paid 310 days in a horrifying situation that none of us can imagine that's number one number two is Hally it has been explained that it's very clear that if you have a life and death situation right now versus a possible situation in the future you save the life right now halic that it's very clear it's not a m and third we have the whole security establishment telling us that we can handle this price and I feel that if we have the whole sec establishment telling us that again I'm not a military tactician I'm just a mother I trust them and when you hear Total Victory the the term the goal a total Victory how do you relate to that so I don't really know what a total Victory is I don't know what that means I know what a failure of Victory is and that is having the hostages not come home everything that we do we're trying very hard to create more Unity more aatam we have such a surplus of pain and acrimony just Among Us and during these nine days before tiab we are trying so hard we're trying so hard these last 10 months not to be a voice screaming not to be a voice filled with hatred and acrimony what we need now more than ever as an am as a people as a nation is unity and that is hard and it is scary and it's hard when you're trying to have com conversation with someone who you don't agree with we don't have to agree we have to understand each other we're one family we have to work very hard and it's very hard to be aad with different voices and different opinions we need the unity and we need our hostages home Rachel thank you very much for joining us We join your prayers of course praying for all our hostages to come home amen amen that's a vot