NEW YORK – Crossing the finish line at Sunday’s NewYork City Marathon, the scarring on the left side of his head was barelynoticeable. Aharon Karov, 27, completed the race in 4:14:31, an impressive featfor anyone. Especially someone who was critically injured five years ago andthought dead.

But his story begins even earlier, at a wedding.

The next morning at around 7 a.m., Karov, a platooncommander and 2nd Lt. in the IDF’s paratrooper unit, received a call from hissuperior officer informing him that there would be a war in Gaza — OperationCast Lead — and that he was needed.

According to halacha and military law, a groom mustonly go to war on his wedding day for a milkhemet hova, a divinelyordained obligatory war. The operation in Gaza “was not one,”Karov recounted.

However, after long talks with his new wife,Karov decided to go to Gaza.

“In Israel, if there is a war, everyone goes becausethere a collectivity, a community. It was clear to me, to both of us, that I hadto go,” said Karov, who had studied in a yeshiva in Netzarim, one of thecommunities destroyed in the 2005 Disengagement from Gaza.

Karov was a platoon commander for 30 soldiers whom hehad trained throughout their army service. “I couldn’t send my men withoutme.”

“Of course I wanted to be home with my wife and not inGaza,” Karov said. “You don’t know when you’re going to see your wife again, youdon’t know when you’re going to speak to your wife again, but you need to putall else to the side — your wife, your family, and even yourself.”

Some ten days afterhis wedding, Karov and his men were tasked with sweeping six buildings forexplosives. As he ascended to the second floor of one building, a booby-trap wastripped. Karov was blasted into the stairwell and the entire building crumbledon top of him.

His men, none ofwhom were critically injured by the blast, quickly rushed to remove the rubblefrom him and pulled Karov’s body out.

It was a week and ahalf after his wedding, and it seemed like his life was over.

Karov noted that apparently one EMT actuallyproclaimed him dead. Then, feeling a faint pulse and realizing that he was not,an EMT made an incision in Karov’s throat to ensure he would keep breathing.

But with eight pieces of shrapnel in his head, all ofhis teeth knocked out, his nose dislodged, his left eye dismembered, and hisstomach and upper left side of his body completely crushed, the prospects of hissurvival looked grim.

Five years later and in good spirits, Karov noted,“With my good luck, it [the blast] only hit me and not the soldiers withme.”

Typically, Karov ran Sunday’s NYC Marathon not forhimself, but for a cause. The money he raised, just over $40,000, will be goingdirectly to OneFamily Fund, an organization which supports victims of terror andtheir families.

The organization had helped the Karov family sinceAharon’s injury in 2008. All of the money Karov raised will be used exclusivelyto aid other victims of terror, including the five soldiers who were injured inthe Gaza tunnel bombing explosion last week.

After being pulled out of the rubble which threatenedto crush him to death, Karov was airlifted to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikvaand immediately prepped for surgery which lasted 18 hours, “just to keep mealive,” Karov said.

As reported in a 2009 YNET article, Aharon’s doctorsagreed his rapid recovery was nothing short of miraculous. Trauma Unit chief atBeilinson, Professor Pierre Zinger remembered, “When he was brought in everyonewas pessimistic and thought his hours were numbered. The injuries were very bad,but in the end there was no injury to the brain.”

The surgery worked. He was alive, barely. In a coma,his family had nothing to do but wait for a recovery that seemed almostimpossible.

Head traumas are sensitive injuries in that you cannever know what to expect. Karov’s family and doctors hoped for the best, butaccepted the worst. Would he recognize his new bride Tzvia? His parents? Hissiblings? What would happen with his memory?

After ten days, Karov awoke from his coma.

“Waking up from a coma isn’t like waking up in themorning,” Karov said, speaking in Hebrew at an event at NYU’s Bronfman Centerthree days before his marathon run in New York. “Waking up is moving your hand,your feet, maybe blinking a few times, not going to shacharit [Jewishmorning prayer] and then going to class!”

Though he could wiggle his right fingers and blink,Karov was a prisoner in his own body. Because of his stomach injuries, he couldnot eat. Because of his severe head injuries, he had no control of his cognitivefunctioning. He had to relearn right and left, the simple commands sit andstand.

The resilience Karov learned by never giving up andstriving to succeed in the hospital were similar traits that he employedrecently while training for the full marathon. For six months, he ran nearlyevery day, and every step he took was his way of showing the world and all ofhis supporters that he would get better, he would succeed.

Most frustrating of all during his recovery, however,was the fact that he could not speak.

“I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t move my hand, but I justhad to go on,” Karov said.

He recalled the frustrations of being a prisoner inhis won body. Laying there in his hospital bed, “I thought my new reality was ina bed, as I was.” Sometimes, he said, “You say to yourself, enough, I don’t havethe strength to continue, I don’t have it in me… I want to be normal; a normalhusband, have a family, and not be a burden.”

The support he received not only from his family, butfrom Jews around the world, gave him the strength to recover.

“All of Israel was writing me letters — haredim [ultraorthodox], dati’im [religious people], hilonim [secular Israelis], people fromAmerica, France — from all over the world,” Karov said. “Everyone wrote to me,they were praying for me, and together gave me the strength to say yes, I willbeat this.”

A large group of supporters from all walks of lifecame out to support Karov on his run Sunday. Men and women from all over thereligious spectrum cheered him on for all 26.2 miles to continue to give himstrength.

Though people around the world were supporting hisrecovery, it still wasn’t easy.

“For three months, I couldn’t speak at all. In myhead, I knew this was a chair, but I couldn’t say it.” It took another month anda half for him to emit any audible sounds.

He could not look at his new bride and compliment her,or tell her how much he loved her. He could not yet call up his soldiers andthank them for saving his life. He was still a prisoner in his mind.

Finally, after three months, Karov was able to regaincontrol of his speech.

“When I started speaking, it wasn’t speaking, it wasaleph, bet, tapuah [apple], banana…” His speech, coupled with the fact that hewas able to take his first few steps, albeit with a walker, marked a new stagein his recovery.

Karov said gratefully that he has “no memory of thosefirst two difficult months,” and only knows of it what he has been told by hiswife, parents, and doctors.

Six months ago, with four and a half years of rehabnow under his belt, Karov began jogging. OneFamily Fund, the organization thathad helped the Karovs during the five years since Karov’s injuries, actuallyencouraged him to run the NYC Marathon.

“I hadn’t thought about it,” Karov said. “But in theend they convinced me and so I am here,” he said speaking from New York.

Aharon will be returning home to his wife and threechildren in Israel later this week to resume classes at Ariel University. Areligious man, Karov spoke gratefully about his lot in life and noted God’s workin the universe.

“To get to where I am despite all the hardships I wentthrough, for me it’s a miracle and Divine Providence.”