Torat JLIC

Recovering Ron Gvili: A Firsthand Account

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Content note: This episode contains graphic descriptions of recovering and identifying human remains in a wartime setting. The conversation is handled with sensitivity and spiritual depth, but may not be suitable for all audiences, particularly younger listeners. Listener discretion is advised.


What does it feel like to bring the last hostage home?

Rabbi Tzvi Wohlgelernter served in the IDF's Yasar unit, tasked with recovering the bodies of hostages and fallen soldiers to ensure they receive a dignified Jewish burial. In this episode, he walks us through the extraordinary mission to recover Ron Gvili, the final hostage to return home from Gaza, and the profound Torah, emotional, and spiritual dimensions that carried him through it.

From navigating mass graves in an open cemetery on the outskirts of Gaza City, to standing alongside an Israeli pop star in the dead of night, to weeping alongside his fellow soldiers when the last piece of the puzzle finally fell into place, Rabbi Tzvi shares a story of sacrifice, faith, and what it means to feel truly part of the Jewish people.

He also speaks openly about mental health, rabbinic leadership during wartime, and the Rav Kook that suddenly came alive when he experienced Klal Yisrael in his bones.

Key Topics Discussed

The Yasar Unit: What They Do and Why It Matters

  • The unit's mission to recover the bodies of fallen soldiers and hostages for dignified Jewish burial
  • Why this work is emotionally, physically, and spiritually exhausting
  • How soldiers sustain themselves through disappointment, failed missions, and the weight of what they witness

    • The Mission to Recover Ron Gvili

    • The intelligence trail that led investigators to a mass grave on the outskirts of Gaza City
    • The complexity of searching thousands of bodies for one specific person, layer by layer
    • The meticulous process: dentists, anthropologists, and explosive ordnance teams all working in parallel
    • Rabbi Tzvi's wife Tali sending him off with five words: "You have to go. That's it."

      • The Moment of Discovery

      • The quiet commotion that built around the dentist station at dawn
      • What it felt like to be standing a few yards away when the confirmation came
      • Soldiers from every background, every walk of life, weeping together
      • The Israeli flag draped over Ron's body, and the spontaneous singing of Ani Ma'amin

        • A Tale of Two Dentists: From Auschwitz to Gaza

        • The haunting contrast between the Nazi "dentist chair" at the crematoria in Poland, used to desecrate Jewish bodies, and the dentists at this mission, working through the night to identify and honor one Jewish man

          • Leading a Community While Living a Secret

          • The double life Rabbi Tzvi was navigating: communal rabbi by day, classified mission operative by night
          • His deliberate choice to speak openly with his community rather than distance himself
          • How sharing his experiences helped congregants and students feel part of the story of Am Yisrael

            • Mental Health in a Time of War

            • Why Rabbi Tzvi's unit has dedicated mental health professionals present after every mission
            • His public address to his community about trauma, suffering in silence, and the responsibility to look out for one another
            • His background in psychotherapy as a pastoral bridge between soldiers and help

              • Rav Kook's Kol Dodi and Feeling Klal Yisrael

              • How this war gave Rabbi Tzvi a visceral, lived understanding of Rav Kook's poetry about national Jewish soul
              • The passage from Orot HaKodesh (Kovetz Aleph, Siman 163): "My nation, I speak to you from the depth of my soul, from the soul of my soul... all of you, your souls and your generations — only you are the content of my life"
              • Why Rabbi Tzvi says he could always recite those words but never truly felt them until this mission
              • The achdut discovered in foxholes, among strangers from completely different worlds, crying together over a body
                • ...more
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