Transcript of A Hero’s Burden: Director Sepi Makabi & Nova Festival Survivor Daniel Sharabi on PTSD, Faith, Healing

I'm Yovind Khareitshah, H gekhi. Tu ne sais pas si tu asiste là. Tu es un des meilleurs. Tu es un des meilleurs. Tu es un des meilleurs. Tu es un des meilleurs. I'm Yovind Khareitshah, H gekhi. I'm Yovind Khareitshah, H gekhi.

In studio with us today is documentary filmmaker Sepi Makhaby, director of A Hero's Burden, telling the story of Daniel and Nouria Schrabbi, Moroccan Israeli brothers who are at the Nova Music Festival on October seventh, 2023, and saved many lives. Breaking news, as of this taping, a peace deal between Israel and Hamas has been reached, and the hostages are set to be returned Monday or Tuesday. Daniel's best friend, Yosef, has been held hostage in Gaza for two years. We will hear from Daniel, who will join us from Israel a little later in this show.

Thank you for having me here today. It's a historic day, and it's with divinity that we're here on this day to talk about this film and Yosef, who we've been holding space for and to bring every single day for the past two years.

I have to tell you, last night I watched your documentary, and it took me four hours to get through it. It was the single best documentary I've ever seen in my life, and it's not close. It isn't. It was breathtaking. I feel like I know these boys. Okay? I just love them, and that's what you did. You brought a light to this issue that no one was talking about, that no one saw, the trauma. The work just begins when they get home. They'll never be the same. Ever. We can get them better and thriving, and that's all well and good, and that's going to happen. But the start... But But the process needs to start immediately in getting these guys straight. It has to be.

The thing that we felt, the thing that I felt when I met these boys right away was their pain. I met them a month after October seventh. They were in LA because one of their friends had bought them a ticket to get out of the noise of Israel and come here and just get away, simply. And I met them at a gala that a local nonprofit together called Mama Nonprofit. And I saw Daniel standing in the audience. And we had about 300 people at this gala. And on my life, there was light coming out from him. He was shining. And I went up to him and I knew he was a nova survivor. And I said, Hey, do you want to come up and share your story? And he got up on stage and he spoke. I don't think I heard a thing he said. I just felt his pain. I felt his pain. And my sister, who's a psychiatrist, was standing right next to me. She said, These boys need help right away. Right now. Right now. So you're absolutely spot on. And that's still the feeling. They need help right now, even though it's been two years.

It's been an intense few days with the impending peace agreement. How are you feeling and how does this news affect your documentary?

I am stupidly hopeful. I've never given up hope on Yosef and the hostages. I knew that they were going to come home alive. I really did. I feel so connected to Yosef, and I felt that he is alive, maybe through the power of Daniel and Naria and their family and their faith. The news is such a relief because we're finally going to have a bit of de-escalation here in our community, across college campuses, and we can start to rebuild and we could start to heal a little bit.

Can I tell you what got to me most is the love of Naria and Daniel for each other. It was so beautiful. I've never seen anything like it. It's so touching. And you can see how much pain Naria has. It's heartbreaking.

His pain, as it's portrayed in the film, has gotten a lot worse. And his pain- It's going to get worse until it gets better. And there's a- And the only way it's going to get better is if he gets top-notch care.

Top-notch care. Remember, ask your sister. There are a lot of well-meaning therapists, psychiatrists, psychologists out there. Very few can He didn't help anybody, unfortunately. He's got to get top-notch care. All of these kids do. And all of the kids who were at the Nova Music Festival need to. This is a must.

It's a must. And what people don't realize about the Nova survivors is they were not in shelter when these atrocities happened. So when the rape and the killing and the dismembering, I'm sorry, I'm saying these things, but they saw these things live in front of them. They were not locked up in a safe room. It was happening right in front of them. So Naria, not only does he have trauma from what he's seen, but he also was fighting back for eight hours, and he killed a lot of terrorists.

And do you think he is... How do you think he feels about killing the terrorists?

There is a reason why he never said it in the film himself.

Do you understand? Because- He can't say it. Because Lisa and I were speaking, and she said he felt... Maybe he felt bad Because he had to take another life because he was such a sweet soul, and he had to kill so many of those people. And I looked at her and I said, Honey, he's upset that he didn't kill them all.

Naria is He's a beautiful human being.

His soul resonates through the film.

He never celebrated. He doesn't want to be a hero. So I don't know. I don't know how to answer your question. Did he feel like he should have killed more people, terrorists who were coming to kill them?

Not should have. What? Not should have. Wished he would have.

Yeah. Yeah, because that would have saved his friends. That's correct. That could have saved- Yosef. Yosef.

From being taken. Yeah.

There's a lot of pain. He won't talk about it, Richard.

The fact that that young boy, that young man, went ahead and did what he did with the lip bomb, I mean, who thinks of that?

It's unbelievable. It's unbelievable. So there is a moment where the gun is jammed. They finally get into the tank. They take out a gun. It's jammed with sand, and they have no oil. If they go back into the tank, the RPGs that are going over their heads is going to kill them. And they came up with a plan right away. Let's use the tiniest bit of lip bomb, the tiniest bit of lip bomb. And that thinking saved not only their lives, but the lives of everyone that was around them. Hundreds of people. I think Daniel himself is blown away by it. The two of them are so proud, and that's what's so beautiful is they're so proud of each other, and their mom is so proud of them.

Magnificent. What first drew you to Daniel and Naria's story, and how did you meet them?

Our event was on a Thursday night. By Monday morning, him and Naria were in my car, and I was driving them to Dr. Orly Peter's office to get therapy. Dr. Orly Peter, who's also in the film, she has an office in LA and an office in Israel.

Was she doing EKGs? What was she doing?

She started with talk, and then she did a bit of neurostimulation with them. And she immediately calmed them down, not only by doing therapy, but letting Letting the boys know that you have a community that cares about you, and you're not alone. Yes, you were left to fend for yourselves for eight to nine hours on October seventh, and no one came to help you, and no one in the government offered them any service after October seventh. No one. For a month while they were here, no one reached out. So they felt the embrace.

You mean here? What about in Israel?

In Israel, no one helped them. After October seventh, the government was so overwhelmed. Overwhelmed. They didn't know how to help. They were able to help the communities like Raim, and Niroz, and Kafar Aza, because they were communities with governors and governments. But the people of no were spread all over the country. How are they going to find them? There's still a massive effort to try to give help to the survivors of Nova. So that's how I met the brothers. And they asked me after the therapy appointment, they said, So what do you do? I said, I work in film and television. And they said, Oh, can you make us a video for TikTok? I said, Okay. They wanted a TikTok. We want the world to hear our story. And can you come and make us a video for TikTok? So the next day, I went to their house with my video camera to get their interview, and the trauma was palpable. They were smoking pounds of wheat. There was literally three pounds of wheat on their table. They were just The substance use was alarming.

They have to.

They have to.

They have to right now because that's them self-medicating, especially when they don't have top-notch treatment. Once they have top-notch treatment, that doesn't become an issue any longer.

Yeah.

All right. How did you earn their trust to film such intimate parts of their story and trauma?

I never wanted to make a film.

So it just came from the TikTok clip? Like, once you were there- I earned their trust because I went into it to help them.

Does that make sense?

Stop. You went there With the heart of a servant, where there was nothing to get, only to give? Yes. Yeah, I understand that.

Yeah. And I knew in my heart at any given moment, whatever I did, I would have to burn the tapes. If They came to me and said, We don't want to do this anymore. This is too much. I'd burn the tapes. Exactly right. Anything. There were scenes that they didn't want. We shot a lot of stuff that any other filmmaker would be doing. Anywho, it was really powerful stuff that spoke to their PTSD, but we burned the footage because they didn't want it in the film.

Good for you. Good for you. That's kind.

It's for them.

And appropriate.

Thank you.

Were there any moments when you or your team had to pause for your own mental health to process what you were seeing in filming?

It took me three months to look at the footage that we first shot. Three months. I could not open my hard drive. I handed it over. I gave it to my amazing partners at special order. They uploaded all the footage. It took me three months. And Daniel was like, So how's your edit coming along? I couldn't look at it. It was so painful. The scene where Naria broke down at the club.

He just had to go.

Where he just... I knew that nothing was ever going to change. I knew it. Going into that night, I knew that something was going to happen. And I wanted to be wrong. I wanted to be wrong. I hoped that they would go in.

The guilt was too much. The guilt was too much. He couldn't be there. While after the people had died and after people are still there, he couldn't be there. He thought he could. He knew he had to try, okay? And he couldn't do it. That's all that was.

He said he saw the dead bodies. Yeah.

How did you decide, with all that you shot, what footage to keep in the film?

Flashbacks are repetitive. What I learned from the brothers, a flashback is the same visualization of something that you've seen over and over again. And And spending time with them, I realized that there were a few moments that they really were affected by. It was the moments around losing their best friend. It was the moments about fighting and shooting every 60 seconds. And it was the moment where they had the bloody young individuals that Daniel helped save. Those were the triggers. Those were the flashbacks. So I honed in on their truth, and we focused on that imagery. And the audio, we have hours and hours of audio footage of Daniel on the call with his commander who's telling him how to fight. But the thing that stuck with us is shoot every 60 seconds because they had to count every 60 seconds. And it was this relationship with time that they had to play with to save their lives on that day. So we kept that alive, shoot every 60 seconds, because every 60 seconds, they knew they had earned another second, another minute of life.

I didn't know why they did that.

The reason that I've learned from Daniel is it's a rule of war. You shoot every 60 seconds so that you're not blasting through your bullets and you're keeping your ammo. So you're stretching your ammo, and you're also letting anyone who's coming to get you. No, you're still good. You're still there. So don't come because we're going to shoot. And this turned into a huge point of contention between Daniel Naria. There was another gentleman, Daniel Bungosi, who was in the tank with them and the police officers that were around them because the police officers were saying, What are you doing? You're wasting ammo. Stop it. Stop shooting. And I've become good friends with one of the police officers who was there. She's just a soul sister. And this is one of the issues. She's still holding on to that fight with Daniel because she told him, Stop shooting, and he didn't. You understand? The level of trauma is so beyond understanding for the people who were there and experienced that, and they're holding on to it. Yeah.

Always. They're always going to hold on to it. But what happens is it can minimize, and it gets better and better and better and better and better. And that way, you're not stuck and frozen and a failure to launch. None of this happens after treatment. It just doesn't. It doesn't mean you're not going to have difficult moments. It doesn't even mean you're not going to have a bad day. But it does mean you're going to have a life that you can be proud of. That's what it does mean. I hope so. What did you learn about resilience from the boys, Daniel and Naria?

If you have faith, and if If you are mentally strong, and if you have a community around you, then you could do whatever you want. You could accomplish anything.

The best part of their support system was their mother and their aunts. Then even when Naria goes to Noem's house to tell Noem's mother and Noem exactly how their father saved hundreds of lives, that put me on edge. That was more than I could... That was a half hour break for me.

That moment was so hard to watch being in the room with Naria and Noam and Arthur's Arthur's wife and their other children who you saw sitting around them and their adorable dog. Because Naria wanted to have... It was clear to me that This was a trauma bond. And he was so deeply connected to this young girl, and he wanted her to be a part of his tribe and his life. It was God. He kept on saying, This is from God. God connected us. There is a reason why we are here together today. And I was happy to see that he had this moment of connection with Noam's family, and he had found a new family. But I was also really scared for him because I realized that he was falling in love with Noam, and I wasn't sure how much that was going to be reciprocated because Naria was in a In a really dark place. Right.

Is Naria and Noab together?

They're not together anymore. Okay. It's okay because their families have become really close.

Very good.

So Noam's mom and Daniel's mom are good friends. They see each other all the time. They're in each other's lives. And in the scene, Naria says, You are my family now. That's right. And that's true. And I think it's probably better that they're not a couple. However, Naria is now in a relationship with a survivor of October seventh, another young woman who survived the massacre in, I believe, Niero's which is one of the communities that was massacred, and they're living together.

How's he doing now?

He is having a hard time with getting help. He's having a hard time with processing the trauma. Unlike Daniel, Daniel has been able to move past it and start school. They started a nonprofit organization. Naria is stuck. There's days that I've called him, like 2: 00 or 3: 00 in the afternoon. Is there all time? And he's just getting out of bed.

How old is he?

He's 23 now.

That's typical for 23-year-olds.

Yeah. I hope you're right. I hope it's not the PTSD.

Oh, it's definitely the PTSD. I'm just saying the sleep isn't definitive or determinative.

So he refused therapy for a long time, Naria. And he didn't think, and he says it in the film, he doesn't think that anyone could help this level of trauma. How could you treat this level of trauma? You've never seen anything like this before. He feels like no one can understand him except his girlfriend, who was there with him and experienced October seventh. And so together, they've built a really beautiful life together, and they're not really letting a lot of people into their lives. So there have been periods of time where I've tried to contact Naria for a month, and I can't get in touch with him. I know he's alive. Daniel knows he's alive. And there's times where Daniel can't get in touch with his brother.

Really? He won't even call Daniel back sometimes.

There's times Daniel has reached out to me or my husband because they're like our family now, and he's concerned for his brother. He's concerned. He can't get out of bed. There's a lot of repetitive substance use. And finally, Naria finally agreed to get help in order to qualify for the government disability services and services that are available to them. But that means seeing a psychiatrist, and there was a lot of medications that were prescribed, which is fine. You have to do what you got to do. But with that comes dysregulation He was very dysregulated, and he couldn't live his regular life on the medications. I think it was on kalanopin.

Okay. Well, listen. I'm not going to play a doctor here today, but I But I do have a place with... I don't know how many doctors I've got, probably 30. Okay. And all that is, is medication adjustment. So So a lot of times, the first medication isn't what's necessary or doesn't work out, and you roll that out, and you move on to the next medication. But benzos were an error. You don't need to prescribe him kalanopin for this.

You know what helped him? Mushrooms. No. What? What helped him the most was he was invited to go to a retreat in Thailand with a healer Fantastic. And he went to this retreat in Thailand with a group of survivors and Sheryl Galan's dad, who's in the film, Sheryl Galan is the young lady who committed suicide. And this was the first time I I got a voice note from him, and he was like, I heard a spark in his voice. He was happy. And I said, I hear joy in your voice. He said, Yes, I'm starting to feel hope again.

But do you see? That's what we were talking about before we even went on camera. This is what top-notch treatment does. He's in a protected, safe, supportive facility, right? That all day is just about getting him right. That's That's the goal. That's what these kids need. That's what all of these kids at the Nova Music Festival need. All of them. Or they're never going to live their best lives. They're never going to thrive in the world unless they get this thing handled. Now, all of them. All of them.

Yeah. Yeah.

Seppi, how are you doing after dealing with this for two years? I mean, you must be drained.

I've learned that there's such thing as second-hand trauma, for sure. And there was a lot of processing, and I couldn't understand why. There were days where I couldn't get out of bed, and there were days where I was super upset and I picked up a bad habit of smoking cigarettes because these boys smoke cigarettes all the time. Don't tell my kids. It was really hard. It was a really emotional process. I never expected to go through anything like this. But as we started locking the film and getting it right and honoring the brother's wishes of getting their story out and honoring their mother's wish of showing what trauma looks like and their trauma, I started to feel lighter and lighter. And every time that we do a preview or the more I release the film out, the less of the burden I feel because I feel like the responsibility is off my shoulders. It was my responsibility to these boys to share their story.

Well, you didn't just help them. You helped every family at that NoVA Festival, okay? Every single one, okay? Every Jew in the world. Every Jew. I mean, look at me. Right?

Yeah.

I mean, and every right-thinking American. Okay? Everybody should see this. Everybody. It was breathtaking. Let's get Daniel on the phone. Daniel, my name is Richard Tate, and I own a place called Carrara Treatment, Wellness, and Spa. It's considered to be the finest addiction and mental health facility in the country. Wow. Yeah. You guys are all traumatized. When Yosef comes home, because he's coming home this weekend or Monday or Tuesday, correct?

. We got help.

Baruch Hashem. Now, how are you feeling about that? Are you excited?

I don't know how to say it, but my mind is a little bit out from the situation. I acknowledge that and I enjoy that, and I cry for it. My family is all going nuts. Everyone speaking Only about that, for the last 24 hours. Not 24, maybe 15 hours. I woke up, my mom woke me up three at 2: 00 last night, and I got on a call with Yosef's dad, and he told me, That's it. You're not going to sleep for this weekend. And I told them earlier, and I told him, I'm coming to you. And we went to Yosef Dad with a family, with a small family, and we spent some time with them till the morning. And I got back home. I slept 2 hours, and I started there again. We have the event here.

Can I tell you the part about the film that really got to me? Yeah. The most impactful part was when somebody asked you in the film if Yosef was still alive, and you snapped back and you said, yes. For me, in that moment, I was like, he doesn't know if he's alive. Then I caught myself and I was like, Uh-uh. He is certain he's alive. What was that process for you? How could you get your head around whether he was alive or not? Why did you land on, Absolutely, he's still alive?

You believe in God?

Do I believe in God? Yes. Absolutely.

I know God because I saw him in my own eyes. Probably you had a lot of experience in your life, but he was protecting me for 12 hours and block bullets, thousands of bullets for me and our PG missiles. And maybe 5, 6, 700. There is a so hard as? I'm still talking to you. And every 25, my friend's dead. And dead when they are 22, 24, 25, 27, 28, 35. My best friend is hostage for two years. We actually didn't stop talking about that, that Yosef is still in the party. It's not funny, but it's a bleak humor that you got after that. You see still party since October seventh. Since in Qatara, it's the holiday that we went celebrate of 2023. It's two years. It's actually two years, like two days before it was two years. And I believe that God couldn't do that. Couldn't kill him. He have to be alive.

The clip on March. I think it was March third. Is that what it was? March third?

The first one, the first Sign of Life? Yes. I believe it was March third. The first video of Yosef's Sign of Life.

Yosef looks so strong in that. After a year and a half at that point, right? The character of him was... I can see why he's your best friend. Tell me a little bit about Yosef.

Before I would tell you that every time that we got proof of life, big one, it was in a meaning point for me, for our group, for our community, for our nonprofit. March 10, it was the first video, and it was two hours before the grand opening of the center. We have community center, Hazeln Center for Mental Health. You mentioned that you have something very big in America. So we have not enough big, not big enough, but we have it in Israel. That two hours before the grand opening, everything started to mess up. Like Naftali Bennett, the ex-prime minister, supposed to come and he can't and a few big donors canceled. And then I was saying, God, listen, I did my best. Now it's your turn. I'm shutting down my phone and that's it. And I'm going in, and I start to get maybe 15 phone calls and messages, and I saw a video of Yosef. I understand that he's with us, with me, and supporting us. God, send me a message. Don't worry, I'm with you. A little bit about Yosef. Yosef teach me a lot. Yosef never scream on someone. Yosef is the guy that's seeing the guy in the side, and I go talk to them and bring him inside back.

Yosef is the guy with the best values that you can learn from someone that is very young, but is very spiritual and very old in his mind. He had a very interesting life. His young brother died from cancer when he was 11, I think, maybe 10, 9. I grew up and he went through a lot of things And we met in a boarding school when he was 15. And we become very good friend. We slept in the same room together. We did everything together. I was so connected because we feel one each other and without talk. I also teach me a lot about life, a lot about how to act with people, how to be human, how to communicate. He's It's my teacher how to communicate with people.

How's your brother doing?

Much better today, thanks to Seppi and their group that's supporting us a lot. I can tell that my life, physically, I have to make it after Noah. But in the soul, in the mind, our group helped us a lot. My brother got into a big regress. He went back on his trauma, the first day, nine months ago, and started to go down and down and down. When someone diving down, nobody can help him. If he doesn't help to himself- That's not true.

On my life, that's not true. I swear to God.

You can be there for them, but if they don't want to get out this hole, black hole, there is nothing that will work for real.

Let me tell you what I want to do, because I saw that film last night, and I feel like I know you. I don't know if it's because I'm Jewish or not, that I went to an Orthodox Yeshiva day school or not. But I noticed everything. I noticed that to fill in while he was smoking cigarettes, shaking like a leaf. I noticed you walking with your tzitzis. I noticed everything. It took me four hours. I watched this thing frame by frame. I have to tell you that the only way you get from here to thriving is with top-notch treatment. I don't mean a little therapy here and there. I mean top-notch treatment. Now, I've got a place-Explain more. What?

Explain a little bit more about-Okay.

Well, that means you go to a place, and I was hoping that the three of you would come to Carrera as my gift and stay as long as you need to. Now, it's very expensive. It's $182,000 a month. I want nothing from the three of you. Nothing. The only thing I want is for you guys to show up together, cracked open, and ready to go. I want you to be open. I want your heart open. I just want you to have a possibility of This can be better. We'll do the rest on my life. There's nothing to do other than stay open. If you're open, everything works out because then the struggle, right now, It's a struggle. I don't want the struggle because when you're struggling, what happens is you can't thrive. You're spending all your energy just trying to get through the day, not build a life that you can be proud of. This is one of the most horrific things that has ever happened in human history. It would be impossible for someone not to have trauma. My fear is when Yosef gets home, he's not going to go immediately into treatment and get well immediately.

Now, I know you got to do your things and you got to catch up with family and everything else. But at a certain point, a week or two in, whatever that looks like, the wheels are going to start falling off. You start going off the track. It would be an honor, truly an honor and a privilege to have the three of you to take care of you like you are my own boys.

Can I say something? Yeah. Yesterday, we were texting with the producers, Daniel, when we got the news that Yosef is coming home. And one of our executive producers, Sue, said, Those hostages are going to need love, and there's so much pain. And I just wrote without hesitation, we are going to take care of them. I didn't know how. I didn't know how. I didn't know how, but I knew that we are going to take care of Yosef in truth. And I come here today, and Richard says, I'm here to receive. And this is the gift of accepting and believing the doors open.

I agree with what you say, Sebi and you two. Without God, there is no way. When there's something to lean on, In your life, it's much easier when you are without nothing. That's why my faith, I believe that helped me a lot every day. Also today, in the whole Amway, we're not putting And I was looking for something to do to be grateful because it's one of the biggest day in my life, in my new life. I didn't have nothing to do. I don't have power to pray or the prayer and all the prayers and all of that. I don't do it feeling it's my thing and that's it. So I spoke with Joseph Dan and he told me, Don't do it feeling. You can't do it feeling. But you know what? Do me small to that with everyone. It's a prayer of thank you, of Tehilim. And we sat all of us together with Yosef Dad on the phone, like 60, 70 people here in the main part of the event. And it was for me, It's not a closure yet because Yosef, he didn't left the tunnel. I don't know the place that he's staying now in Gaza.

But we know that a new capture in our life start a few hours ago. The only thing that can give a little bit hope, not a little bit, a lot of hope to this country is the hostages. Life or dead, to bury them, to bring them back to their families. You know, like me, I'm very good friend of Yosef, but maybe 60 people was here tonight, maybe 45 of them know Yosef, friends with them from a part or two in life. And all of them feel every day. They see something, they're in mind. There's the self that he's there and we are here. We can heal as a people after Noah, when Yosef is there, and I will do my best. This does not exist, not for me, at least. And the only thing that can change it is the deal. Even that we're not agree about part of the things. And if they don't want to see a Hamas terrorist that was on October 7 and was trying to kill me and got in captivity, going to their homes and Start to make it again and plan it again. I don't want to see it.

I want them to be dead or in prison, at least. But this is the price that we have to pay, and this is the best decision that we can do. This is the moment. Two years after, we have to finish it. We're not America. We can't fight for 10 years. We have to stop it because we're losing people for two wars, wars in the battlefield and war behind the battlefield. For our soul, we lost more than 65 soldiers that committed suicide.

Why did you agree to do this documentary? What did you hope to achieve with this?

I start with no expectation, with none of understanding what I'm doing. And I slowly, slowly, part by part, I understand and I I find out the meaningful and the mission that came out of that and the help that will support so many people. Two years after, I'm much older in my mind, in my experience I missed my record, of what I did and what I'm doing. And I know now that... I will tell you a story and you will understand everything. There is a woman, I am not going to say her name, but she met us when Sepe started to film us on November 23. And she didn't like what she saw. She saw for... It was me, my brother, and two other cousin. She live in. And she saw us and she didn't like us. She didn't like us because we did that and we did it. We act like that. And when I'm looking back, I know that there was someone, a boy, 23 years old, that just came out of hell and arrived to America, the big dream. When I arrived, we saw tons of people that was taking care of us and trying to protect us and all of that.

We just was a young people and we did some mistakes. And she didn't understand that. A few weeks, month and a half ago, she was in their first private screening of the movie. And two weeks after, I arrived to United States. I arrived to LA. And she's a very, very good friend of someone that helped us a lot, the organization personally. And his wife sees She's taking care of us a lot over there and till now. And he came to me and he told me, listen, she keep talking to you. And She feels sorry that she think about you like that. And she came great for what she thought about you, about what you did. She didn't understand. And the woman came to me. We had an event and she told me, Listen, it's not right. I didn't know what you had been through. I don't know what is PTSD. You have to explain to people because people don't know. We can't see it. We're not seeing it every It's not something that we see. And I understand now. And I'm sorry. And she helped us a lot. In the last three weeks, she helped us a lot.

And now we connect to a I'm a survivor in the organization, and she starts to help with her business. Anyway, it's amazing.

What's the first thing you're going to say to Yosef when you guys reunite?

I always was thinking about it a lot. In the past two years, and especially in the last few hours, I was seeing very good friends of mine, people that was in the party and was with Yosef. I can't think about nothing except from sorry.. I don't know what to say. That's it. Honestly, sorry. Sorry for I introduced this to her. So before I wasn't with you over there or that we all back home. Two years ago, not now.

And that's it.

Does Yosef know you were alive, do you think?

I don't know. I don't know. I really don't know. I don't know what to think. I don't know I don't know what to know. I don't know what everyone knows. So many people waiting for answers. I have like a thousand messages waiting for me to answer. I didn't open my phone. I didn't answer to a message, only to who wants me, we'll call two or three times, and maybe I'm answering because so many questions that they don't have the answer for.

The love that you have for your little brother I don't even have a word for it. It was so emotional when you were holding him and you were telling him that 4,000 people, you were the one. You saved everybody. You did everything. You're brave. I love you. I mean, it was just... How do you feel about how your baby brother did your brother do that day?

The Navy Sears in America, they are the best team. The SWAT in Israel, they are the best team. My brother better than two of them. But my brother did, then I don't know if they will do it, but in our situation, we got nothing. I was there. I was standing, 40 people under the tank, some of them, everyone, switch between one each other, boys, girls. My brother told me, I'm going inside the tank to bring more armor. Because if I'm not going in, everyone going to die. If I'm jumping in, maybe I will die. I understand that. My cousin, one on I don't want to jump in, too, but he don't know how to find stuff in the tank. So I told him, Okay, do it, but wait, your weapon. And then I speak to 40 people. You know these 40 people lying on the floor? And I'm looking at everybody. I need someone. I need someone to stand up. I need someone to stand up and protect us from the left side. Switch the gear. And nobody speak. And in a situation of dead, you can ask. You can force people. And nobody stand up.

One of the guys stand up for a second, then hear what I want them to do, and he say, I can't. And my brother just jump on everyone and claimed to the tank. And I have a record of the part that I'm saying, I'm saying, God, please keep on this. Please watch him. And in the meantime, I ask him the machine gun to shoot, to give him a fire to cover, and he jumped. And 10 seconds after, tons of bullets coming out, water, manipulus, so many things that we was needing. And I know that nobody in the world will do the same. I don't know how he did it. He did it not one, not two, not three, 10 times this day.

But then when he picks up the gun, and It's full of same, and the quick thinking with bullets all around, Give me your lip bomb. And then he takes the lip bomb and he makes the gun so that it works again. Who does that? God. That's what I'm saying.

You think this is me?

No, I knew the answer. I knew the answer. I was just asking.

This is what I'm telling you. I know God. We ask and he give. And this is the only option that we give him to do. It's like your father, and you are a kid, and you force him to do something, take me, and we take you. You can say no. And this is how we was on October 7, even that we was on the... Like a dead life, dead life.

Daniel, I know today is such an important day for you. It's such an important day for your mom, for Naria, for Yosef, Yosef's family. And the fact that you made time today to speak with us is so So generous. I appreciate you. I appreciate all the time and openness that you've shared with me. And we went into this thing together not knowing what we were going to do. We thought we were going to make a TikTok video. But I really do think that our message and our mission of helping others and bringing awareness to PTSD is working. We are going to change the world, and we are going to get people the help they need. And you, my friend, had a big hand in bringing Yosef home under the protection that his family wanted. This film didn't go out until he came home. Number two, you have found a place for him to come to and get help, the best help in the world when he's ready.

And I want the three of you to come because I know that you're doing well. I get it, okay? But he ain't going to want to come without you. You'll come and you'll come and You'll get infinitely better because I know you're struggling, okay? You're doing better than most, but you're struggling, aren't you?

Every day.

I know. Then this isn't an empty... This isn't an empty gesture. My home is your home for you and your brother and Yosef. I'm sorry that you guys went through what you went through. But all of you are heroes. All of you. All of you. I don't have the words for it other than every Jew in the world is proud of you and your brother and welcomes, is thrilled that this kid and the rest of the hostages are coming home.

Thank you. Thank you so much. I believe that each one of us needs to stand up. We have one situation in life that if we don't stand up, the history will judge us. Every Jew around the world, every good person, not only you, there is a day... This is the day of the history. We judge all of us as a people, what we did, what we're doing, and what we will do, with every action that will come to our door. One of the things that guide me since October 7 is that something came to me. I didn't want that. I didn't want to go to Noah to fight, to survive, to do that, to do that, to travel around the world. It came to me. And I understand that I have to choose. On October seventh, it was to take the weapon and to fight, to help other people. And the day after, this is my action. This is the decision that I made. I fight. I could fight on October seventh, probably more than anyone, it was Noah, almost. And I'm proud to say because I did it from a place very pure. But if I, on the day after, fight and doing such a big mission, I think every person who cannot give up on something, can say no to some opportunity in life that God gives you.

Choose the good thing, the good part, and do it.

Thank you, Daniel. Thanks, buddy. Thank you for your wisdom.

I really appreciate it, man. Have a great day, okay?

Thank you.

I miss you already. I'll see you when you come into town, okay? You'll stay with me. Yes. All right.

All right.

All right.

All right, Frank. We just got off the phone with Daniel, and it hit me that this is the the first time that anyone... I mean, you've talked about, yeah, they're suffering, the trauma, but this shines a light on what it really is. And there really are two wars because you got the war there, and then you got the war when you come home, and it doesn't stop. You did that.

Thank you. We need to acknowledge the fact that the mental health crisis that comes with war is something that we've always ignored and pretended that alcohol and a cigarette is going to fix always with any war, with any soldier, with any veteran. There is an uptick in suicide rates across the globe, and especially in Israel. People are jumping off buildings. People are cutting themselves. Daniel is dealing with survivors who are suicidal and calling him for help. He doesn't need to be in that place. We need to embrace them, and we need to create a platform where we could help.

Well, it's also healing for him to be of service because you can't think of your own problems when you're being of service to somebody else. You can't. It's not possible. So it is helping him to do that. He fell into it. I mean, that was God, right? Yes. And he fell into that. He didn't fall into it. He was directed into it because he's got the ability to empathize, not just from an outsider's perspective, but he went through it with them. And he treated half these people.

He did. Yeah. And he's at a point where he needs help.

Well, we'll see if these guys... Listen, you can lead a horse to water, right? So if they show up, they're going to have the beginnings of their best lives to look forward to. Otherwise, this is the type of thing that gets worse, untreated, not better.

Absolutely. Richard, thank you for paying attention to the subject matter. Thank you for acknowledging the film. Our mission is to focus on PTSD and the trauma that a lot of people in Israel are feeling and dealing with, and they're not talking about it. Everyone is stuck on October seventh, and we wanted to look at what happens after October seventh, Life with Trauma. And this film shines a bright light on PTSD, and we hope that we can galvanize other people, just like we galvanized you, to go out and find a way to actively do something and help victims of terror and talk about PTSD. Once the conversation starts, then we could really make some true impact.

Listen, I don't know if you truly even can grasp what you did here because I know how it works. You just put one foot in front of the other and then magic happens, right? But this is a mitzvah for the world.

Thank you.

All right. You did great.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for having me today.

We are done. Thank you.