Mendy Rivkin, the Israeli man stabbed and seriously wounded by an Arab terrorist last Wednesday night, has told of his terrifying ordeal and miraculous recovery.
Rivkin was out with his wife in Givat Ze'ev, Jerusalem, when the terrorist stabbed him twice in the back; he was lucky to survive.
"I feel much better every day," he told reporters from his hospital bed. "I'm getting stronger daily and I feel very lucky. Every day I go up a rung on the ladder and the steps keep getting bigger."
"I went out with my wife to have a meal," he recounted. "Suddenly I felt two blows to the shoulder and I felt all the air go out of me. I told my wife that I'd been stabbed twice.
"I immediately went into a store. I pushed my wife with me by instinct as I fell. I got the coat off and lay down on it. I was cold. Again I shouted that I'd been stabbed and I felt the life seep out of me.
He said he saw God's hand in the speedy arrival of paramedics, whose emergency first aid likely saved his life.
Rivkin said that while the experience was a traumatic one, he had resolved not to let it defeat him.
"The feelings are unpleasant ones at first, but on second thought I decided that I will not let them scare me or give a prize to terror under any circumstances. We will raise our heads and win," he said.
A Chabad hassid, Rivkin quoted the last Lubavicher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, in a message urging the Israeli government not to give an inch in the face of terror.
"The Lubavitcher Rebbe said that just by talking about handing over territory, we are endangering millions of Jews. We are utterly forbidden to talk about handing over territories in any way, in any diplomatic context. It must stop.
"It has caused damage, and there are thousands who did not get to reach a press conference like this. I got to rise from the dead, in a certain sense, maybe just to send this message and say – 'Guys, this is our land. God gave it to us as a gift. Under no circumstances can we give it up.
"We must start raising our heads because we are a wonderful nation," he added. "We need to stand tall because we can beat this thing. We can attack all those who are challenging us.
"So guys, let's win, and with God's help we will succeed. And stop thinking about handing over territory. We need to defeat terror in the toughest way possible."