Last week, I had the good fortune to interview my new neighbour (and new friend!) Daria Petrov. Born in Russia, moved to Israel (by fluke) at age 2, at 24 Daria decided to travel around the country. She then lived in Guatemala for 6 months, intending to work as a tattoo artist for Israelis… but something shifted. From there she moved to the “Fairy Forest” ecological farm in Haifa, where the beauty around her inspired her to want to say “Thank You” to G-d.
I learned about Daria’s colourful life, how easy it is to be a tattoo artist, the similarities in spirituality of a free spirit and Chabad, the power of Hafrashat Challah (separating the dough,) and about Nova parties — an overnight trance party that happened every few months. I was touched by Daria’s deep spirituality.
In 2023, the Nova Festival combined for the first time with the Brazilian Psytrance festival, Universo Parallelo. Their attendance skyrocketed from a maximum of 500 or 1000 people to 4000 attendees. Daria joined the party at 4 am and experienced an amazing two and a half hours. Then everything changed. Dancing for peace, party-goers got just the opposite.
18 minutes: Daria describes what happened that day. How reciting “Shma Yisrael” strengthened her. Her body intuition guided her to stop running and hide under a bush and saved her and another person’s lives.
31 minutes: She and four others hid in a riverbed ditch for 8 hours
35 minutes: inner thoughts, what she had (not) witnessed so far, spiritual conversation
48 minutes: after the bush, and what happened to her 4 friends who came with her
53 minutes: recovery. The only thing you have left is your belief. Before, she was a spiritual person. But after - “I came out of this bush as a Jewish person… because my friends got killed because they are Jewish, on this land.” Reading Tehilim (Psalms) - “Every word touched my soul.” “When there’s war, you can really find your peace. When there’s terrorists, you can really find what’s good in people.”
59 minutes: the group for Nova Survivors. Different people had different reactions. Hers is a powerful testament.
This is her first time telling her story in English.
Daria’s instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dariapetrov.8/
Nova Tribe, which you can support: https://tribeofnova.co.il/
Note: This interview was recorded last Thursday night, after Chanukah ended.
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