“My world changed entirely during that war. Nothing was ever the same again and the memories never fade”

Photos: Yossi Schwab

Fifty years ago, Rabbi Chaim Sabato was a 22-year-old yeshivah bochur dragged out of shul to help fend off the enemy. Today, as a prolific author and a rosh yeshivah of the hesder yeshivah in Maaleh Adumim, he reflects back on that unforgettable Yom Kippur, on his best friend who was assigned a different tank and then killed, but mostly on the outpouring of chesed with so much love and sacrifice for one another. “When I saw all that unconditional giving even under fire,” he says, “I knew we’d win”

He’s known as a prolific writer of inspirational books, and a voice of insight, courage and emunah when it comes to the battle annals of the Yom Kippur War. His book, Ti’um Kavanot (Adjusting Sights, in English), the moving account of a soldier in the Yom Kippur War, is based on his own experiences as a yeshivah bochur-soldier navigating an impossible battlefield.

But Rabbi Chaim Sabato is more than a highly acclaimed author (his titles include Aleppo Tales, The Dawning of the Day: A Jerusalem Tale, From the Four Winds, and Rest for the Dove). He’s also the founder of Yeshivat Birkat Moshe, the hesder yeshivah in Maaleh Adumim, where he’s served as a rosh yeshivah for over 40 years.

Fifty years after he came back from the battlefield on the Golan Heights, the war that molded the rest of his life still reverberates.

“My world changed entirely during that war,” he says. “Nothing was ever the same again and the memories never fade.

“It wasn’t only a war of mortars and tanks,” he says. “We religious soldiers had our tefillin bags at our sides, and we recited Tehillim whenever there was a lull. But there was also another spirit, not just the tefillos of the religious soldiers, but the noble actions of the soldiers I saw around me, who risked their lives for Am Yisrael, carrying out unbelievable heroic acts out of love and friendship for their comrades, and all under impossible conditions, amid the hail of artillery fire and constant shooting.”