הנרות הללו אנו מדליקים על הנסים ועל הנפלאות .... שעשית לאבותינו בימים ההם בזמן הזה ... (סדר הדלקה)
Daniel and Neriya Sharabi attended the Nova Festival on October 7, together with a group of friends, and soon after enjoying a beautiful sunrise, the missiles started falling and everyone started running. Daniel was a trained IDF medic and kept stopping to help wounded people along the way, but after watching an RPG blow up a car behind which his best friend Yosef and some others were hiding, he simply dropped everything and ran, together with Neriya, for their lives. Terrorists were everywhere, spraying machine gun fire, and young people were dropping like flies. It was nothing short of heartbreaking.
Suddenly, they saw an abandoned Israeli tank and climbed inside. A dead soldier was slumped forward and they searched every inch of the tank looking for a weapon. It was empty, though, and the two brothers began to play with the controls to see if they could get it moving, in order to drive it away. Neither had any training in tank controls and the tank would not budge.
They held their breath hoping the terrorists would not attack an abandoned tank, but this too, was shortlived. The tank came under heavy fire and Daniel thought their end was near. Just then, he hears his brother Neriya shouting, praying: “Hashem, I don’t pretend to understand why this is happening, but I do know that there is a dead soldier who was fighting for You, for Your people, and we want to fight too. Now it is Your turn - give me a weapon! I don’t care how - just give me weapon!” The second he finished shouting, Neriya looked down and noticed something shiny under the soldier’s foot. It was the strap of a rifle.
With thanks on his lips, Neriya picked up the rifle and grinned. Now they had something to fight back with. Daniel opened the tank’s turret and hastily climbed out. Neriya threw him the rifle and climbed out himself. To their shock, they found 30 young men and women hiding under the tracks of the tank. Had they managed to get it started, an even bigger calamity might have unfolded. Daniel, the medic, went to help the wounded, while Neriya opened the rifle’s chamber to see how much ammunition they had. To his chagrin, the chamber was full of sand. It wouldn’t work no matter how much ammo was inside.
Daniel remembered that quite often, girls bring jars of vaseline to these festivals in the desert because their lips get dry from the wind. He grabbed the rifle and called out if anyone has vaseline. One girl came forward and handed him a small jar. He quickly greased the rifle’s chamber - and what do you know - the ammunition slid right in. Just like in the Chanukah story, the Jews had the miracle of the jar of oil - On October 7, they had their own miracle - the miracle of the jar of vaseline!
Neriya took the rifle and began returning fire. Daniel called a number of fellow members of his Givati Brigade to come help them, but the army didn’t show up for hours. He finally called Yoni, his deputy commander, and asked him what to do. Yoni told them to shoot into the bushes where the terrorists were taking cover, one bullet every 60 seconds, so the terrorists knew that they were armed. Yoni stayed on the phone for 5 hours, directing the battle from Tel Aviv. Five whole hours!
Meanwhile, one of the men who had been hiding under the tank climbed up and managed to dislodge the heavy MAG gun that was mounted on top. This was a more serious weapon. With him on the MAG, Neriya with the M-16 rifle, and Daniel on the phone with Yoni directing the battle using the tank for cover, the little band of Maccabim held off waves of terrorists.
An RPG exploded nearby and everyone was hit with shrapnel. The group of girls still hiding under the tank began to shriek and scream. Daniel yelled at them: “Quiet, everyone, quiet! Some of us are wounded and some are fighting. Everyone else - daven!” And that is exactly what they did! They started praying, a group of non-religious boys and girls began screaming, “Shema Yisroel ...” reciting chapters from Tehillim. It was otherworldly - Daniel said he will never forget that moment the rest of his life!
Suddenly, the MAG jammed and a little more miracle vaseline was used to get it working. The small group held off bands of terrorists for hours and even captured a few, along with their weapons. The army finally arrived and took the injured men and women away. They also took the captured terrorists with them, but not before Daniel gave one murderer a strong kick that knocked him to the ground. The kick did not change anything - but it made Daniel think that the only way to fight evil is by doing good, by being good, wherever he went. The way to take revenge is by being a shining light. That is the true victory.