How a Mitzvah Pledge Led to a Funding Pledge

By Sruly Meyer/COLlive

Zevi Litzman, a bochur from Sydney, Australia, is currently a Yeshiva student in New York but was home for Pesach in Sydney. During this time back home, Zevi, along with his friend, Mendel Moss set out on Mivtzoim one Friday before Pesach.

“While putting Tefillin on some people I know from past visits, I saw someone that I did not recognize and offered to put Tefillin on him,” Zevi tells COLlive. “At first, he seemed slightly reluctant, but eventually he did agree. As we started to put on Tefillin I could tell he seemed emotional, but I didn’t make anything out of it, since I know that can be a reaction people have sometimes.”

The story would normally end there, a run-of-the-mill, classic Friday Mivtzoim incident. However, on Shabbos, Zevi was at Beis Menachem Chabad in Dover Heights led by Shliach Rabbi Motti Feldman, and noticed this same person at the Shul.

The mystery guest turned out to be Mr. Eran Masas. Eran is a retired IDF career soldier, who was a first responder at the Nova Festival on October 7th. He played a vital role in protecting the bodies of those who were killed from further terrorist acts, including making sure no bodies were taken hostage.

During the Farbrengen following davening, Rabbi Feldman invited Mr. Masas to speak to the Shul congregation about that day.

“He was a first responder on that fateful day at the Nova Festival,” Zevi told COLlive of what Mr. Masas recounted. “Mr. Masas waited for hours for further resources to come to help, and single-handedly killed more terrorists that kept coming around searching for more people. He spoke about how he saved people and then started moving hundreds of bodies to protect them and to make sure that the families would be able to bury them.”

Mr. Masas also told the crowd about an organization he has started, to help soldiers with PTSD. Mr. Masas himself suffers from PTSD from that day, and he hopes through his organization to help other soldiers and people affected with PTSD from October 7th get the help they need.

Mr. Masas then related to the crowd that something incredible had happened to him that Friday that “changed everything.”

Mr. Masas explained that he had been trying to raise funds from donors to support this organization for many months now, and it’s been a difficult task. He was specifically awaiting the response of one potential big donor for months, and he had almost given up hope.

That Friday, only minutes after putting on Tefillin, the donor called him and pledged a huge sum that would make a major difference to the organization. Mr. Masas credited his Tefillin with the incredible act of kindness of the donor and the good news he’d received.

“If not for the Shabbos day farbrengen, we’d never have heard the beautiful ending of that story!” Zevi says.

In addition to the PTSD resources Mr. Masas is working on, he is also traveling the world and screening the new documentary he created, directed by Dan Peer, about the October 7th massacre. The film is called “Hashtag Nova” and it’s available for limited showings upon request. This is in fact why Mr. Masas was in Sydney, as the film was screening in Sydney that weekend.

You can find out more about Mr. Masas’s film Hashtag Nova online. If you’d like to arrange a screening you can email yesstudios@yes.co.il.