A light slowly returning to their faces

We're watching these two come back to life.

In February of last year, we saw these two, emaciated and imprisoned. Pale and so far gone. In our hearts we knew there was a chance that we would never get them out alive. They were forced to watch other h*stages be released while they we kept behind.

We prayed and wept and screamed and the months kept passing.

By Tisha Ba'av we saw Evyatar David, barely able to stand, being forced to "dig his own grave" by H*mas. It didn't look like he would be able to survive many more days.

We were desolate and enraged.

Somehow, they made it through.

They were released in the last segment of h*stages that were let go, and we are watching them rebound to life in real time.

And now, we are witnessing something almost unbelievable: recovery not as a quiet process, but as a public re-entry into life itself.

Evyatar and Guy have been best friends for most of their lives. That matters, because what we are seeing now is not just individual survival, but relational survival- the envigoration of a shared language, shared humor, shared courage.

We are watching a bond that preceded captivity help carry them through it, and now back from it.

To watch them now- traveling together through the United States, standing in rooms full of strangers, telling the story no one should have to tell, advocating for Israel while still clearly healing, is surreal.

There is a light slowly returning to their faces. A steadiness in their bodies. A tenderness in the way they look at one another that speaks of years, not months, of loyalty.

Their simchat hachayim is not naïve joy, it is earned joy.

The kind that only arrives after d*ath has been stared down and refused.

These two young men have come home - not only to a place, but back into their own lives.

They are alive.

And to witness that, to witness resurrection in real time, is a privilege.