When Guy's mother, Shoshana Lavone, heard of his plans to leave for parts unknown, she turned to Guy with a request: "For your sake, and for ours, please keep Shabbos fully, for two weeks in a row. In retrospect, when he looks back on those two days he spent absorbing the sanctity of the Shabbos, Guy feels that their special atmosphere accompanied him on his travels, which gave him strength to carry on during his terrifying experience that befell him in the valley of death...

When Eli Alon met Ornah; she was religious and Eli knew absolutely nothing about religion. A year after their wedding, their first child, Mark-Mordechai, was born. They knew only happiness and fulfillment, until suddenly, their world was shattered. Ornah was diagnosed as having a malignant growth. One day Ornah asked him to bring her something from her drawer, and he noticed an envelope in Ornah’s handwriting addressed "To my son, Mordechai"...

Mori Yichia came to Israel on the "Flying Carpet Aliya," with many other Yemenite Jews who were brought to the Zionist State at the time. "They wanted to strip us of any sign that we were Jewish!" He married, and was eventually blessed with eight children – four boys and four girls. One by one, though, his children turned their backs on his traditional ways. They mixed with non-religious children and joined the mainstream...

Nissim Hazan an Israel Air Force pilot, was grounded. Far from his familiar cockpit, he scraped his feet against the rocky desert soil in an effort to warm himself. He knew there was nothing he could do but sit and wait for help. He dared not leave his narrow perch over the canyon to gather firewood for a fire for fear of plunging to his death. Altogether, Nissim made three requests, and waited for his prayers to be answered...

In the army, Avraham Arbel entered flight school intending to become a helicopter pilot. One day, a good friend Nissim, an engineer for Hercules Aircraft, suddenly showed up on the base wearing a kipah. Avraham made inquiries and learned that Nissim attended an Arachim Seminar and heard that another Seminar was about to begin – in Netanya. He went there for the opening ceremonies, as an unregistered observer...

Monica's parents were totally secular, so when she asked for a white tablecloth and Shabbos candles, her request was met with great surprise. One Shabbos, surprised by her own daring, she knocked on the door of a Yemenite family and asked shyly, "May I see the Shabbos?" The Shabbos candles glowed peacefully as she listened to kiddush, and then enjoyed a sip of the sweet wine. When she married Dani, Monica would gush about the beauty of Shabbos...

Yoram Ben-David had pursued such a wide variety of interests – but every one of them was of this earth – physical and limited. He studied plants, animals and medicines. He flew in the air and dived under sea. He traveled the globe to get a taste of ancient cultures, of witchcraft and magic, but it all turned out to be mundane and didn't satisfy him, until he encountered true spirituality. It immediately uplifted him, far above where he had been before...

When Alon graduated, he was inducted into the Israel Defense Force. It didn't take long for his kipah to come off. When Na'ama and Alon wed, the couple decided to fly to Thailand for their honeymoon. His parents begged him to take along his tefillin. When they arrived to Bangkok, Na'ama was so thoroughly repulsed that she suggested they fly back to Israel immediately. The next morning, when Na'ama woke up, she beheld a very peculiar sight. There was Alon, wrapped in tefillin, reciting the morning prayers!

When Moranne finished her stint in the army, she decided that the time had come to see the world. In the United States, her parents helped her enroll in an excellent chef's school in lower Manhattan, right under the famous World Trade Center. The prospect of paying the tuition – over $40,000 a year – did not disturb them. In NY, she met Oren Orditi who was also from Israel. That first day of chef's school fell on a date that became famous, or infamous: September 11, 2001...

David and Meirav Shitrit were both products of Israel's famous "Wingate Institute for Physical Education". The young couple were happy and active, until the fateful day when their lives were radically changed. David was at the wheel of their car, Meirav next to him, and their three-year-old daughter in a car seat behind them. Another driver rammed into them head-on, crushed their car and caused extensive injuries to both parents, and lost their only child...