In a recent radio interview with Ami Maimon, Rabbi Kuti Miyodovnik, director of Chabad of Tefen, shared the extraordinary story of IDF soldier Tohar Dega – a story of tragedy, emunah, and open miracles.

Several months ago, during the war in Gaza, a horrifying incident occurred when a building collapsed on soldiers from the Nahal Reconnaissance Unit, killing five of them instantly, Hashem yikom damam, and leaving Tohar critically injured. He suffered multiple fractures and a severe head injury, with a large part of his skull shattered – doctors did not expect him to survive.

When his parents received the devastating news, they rushed to the hospital. Though they come from a completely non-frum background, they stood at their son’s bedside and began to recite Mizmor LeTodah. The doctors, shocked, asked how they could be saying a kapitel of thanksgiving when their son’s condition was so desperate. “We’re thanking Hashem that we have something to daven for,” they replied simply.

For several months, Tohar lay in a coma. Then, in an open miracle, he woke up. Weak and barely able to speak, he noticed people walking around wearing tzitzis, and he insisted on sitting up and forcing out the words: “You should know that Hashem is the King of the world, and we are His princes. We must thank Him always.”

Later, when Chabad of Tefen shluchim came to visit, Tohar asked for tzitzis, requested mezuzos for his room, and again pushed himself to stand and share a few words, urging others to thank Hashem and strengthen their emunah.

When asked how he survived, Tohar pointed to his tzitzis, then raised his finger upward and said one word: “Hashem.”

“Even before he was able to speak at all, he always tried to influence others,” recalled one frequent visitor to the hospital. “Whenever he saw someone nearby, he motioned for them to come closer and put on tefillin. No one could refuse him. When they did, he’d raise his finger in victory, so happy that it was worth putting on tefillin just to see his joy.”

“I don’t know what he saw there,” said Rabbi Miyodovnik, “but it seems he became a baal teshuvah in heaven. He can hardly move or talk, but all he wants is to come closer to Hashem.”

Please continue to say Tehillim for: Tohar ben Relli.

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