After Passover, Tal Kuperstein, father of hostage Bar Kuperstein, sat in his wheelchair at Israel’s border with Gaza near Kibbutz Nir Oz and, shaking with emotion, yelled, “Bar! I am speaking again! You can come back.”

Kuperstein’s meaning was clear: If he could manage to learn to speak again after his stroke, Bar could somehow return home.

It’s been five years since Kuperstein lost his ability to speak. He had suffered a cerebral incident during surgery after being in a car accident while volunteering as a medic for the United Hatzalah ambulance service.

Now he is clawing his way back toward walking and talking after his eldest son, Bar, was taken hostage from the Nova desert rave on October 7, 2023, where he was working as a security guard during the festival.

“I don’t know how I got the strength,” said Kuperstein, his speech at times slurred but his intent clear.

He forced himself to speak again, said Ora Rubinstein, Bar’s aunt, a nurse who is often by her brother’s side.

“A month after Bar was taken captive, Tal decided he was going to do everything he could to fight and bring Bar back,” said Rubinstein. “And in every possible way, slowly, with help from so many good people he meets along the way. He’s at the Holon protests, rain or shine, he meets people and accepts their help.”

Rubinstein said that her brother needed confidence in order to allow himself to speak, even though it’s easier to ask his sister to speak for him.

“I feel that he’ll come home if I speak,” said Kuperstein, sitting next to his sister. His aide, Anel D’Souza, a foreign worker from India, is always at his side.

On Saturday, October 7, Bar had been working at the Nova with his best friend Din Tesler as part of a crew of security guards.

Tesler and Bar had been at the Nova desert rave since Thursday.

“It was my first time as a security guard,” Tesler told The Times of Israel. “Bar had worked for the company a few times before.”

When the rockets fired from Gaza began falling at 6:29 a.m., Bar and Tesler and the other guards opened an emergency exit and were helping treat wounded partygoers.

At that time, with rockets attacks countrywide, Bar’s grandmother called her grandson, knowing he was working as a security guard at some outdoor party. He told her he was fine and would head home as........

© The Times of Israel