David Blesses: R’Haim Sabato’s Wartime Talk in Ofaqim
Dedicated to the memory of the seven graduates of the Yeshiva High School, Afiqei Eretz, in Ofaqim, who fell on Oct. 7th and the following days in defense of their people, freedom, and country
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The American Sephardi Federation’s Sephardi Ideas Monthly (SIM) by Dr. Aryeh Tepper is a continuing series of essays and interviews from the rich, multi-dimensional world of Sephardi thought and culture that is delivered to your inbox every month.
Rabbi Haim Sabato embodies the integrated ideal of Classic Sephardic Judaism. Co-founder and Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Birkat Moshe, a highly respected Israeli educational institution that combines Torah study and service in the IDF, R’Sabatois also a critically-celebrated writer whose Hebrew-language novels swing through Biblical, Mishnaic, medieval and contemporary registers while telling stories that resonate beyond Israel’s borders.
R’Sabato’s most popular novel, Adjusting Sights, is his memoir from the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Sabato was an 18-year-old gunner in a tank flanked by Israeli vehicles ablaze on the Golan Heights when a Syrian tank lowered its cannon and began adjusting its sights on Sabato and his crew. His commander yelled, “Sabato, pray!” Under those conditions, R’Sabato continues to say to this day, “You stand before God with a pure heart and without anything separating you… We should merit this moment, to stand before God… without any partition or separation, in quiet, peaceful times.”
A month ago, in the middle of February, R’Sabato spent Shabbat, Parashat Yitro, in my hometown of Ofaqim. A former student from R’Sabato’s yeshiva who lives in my community made the arrangements, and he requested in exchange that R’Sabato please offer a class. The rabbi agreed.
R’Sabato brought his first-year students from Birkat Moshe with him, to give strength and to be strengthened by the warm, working-class town of 40,000 that was flooded with Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7th. They prayed at a local national-religious High School Yeshiva, Afiqei Eretz, that lost seven of its sons fighting on the 7th and the following days.
R’Sabato offered his talk on Saturday afternoon in the Yeshiva’s modest, one-story Beit Midrash (study hall). Sitting with his back to the Aron haQodesh, the ark where the Torah scrolls are kept, and facing his audience of 20-25 men spread around two-person tables adorned with prayer books and disposable, plastic cups, R’Sabato spoke in a pleasant, measured cadence with a hint of melancholy, his speech punctuated at intense moments by leaps into the upper reaches of his voice.
The talk was, simply put, an extraordinary delineation of a heroic vision of Jewish life, free from any hint of anger or resentment. David is the hero of R’Sabato’s story, the King who artfully transforms his experience into music that blesses evil as it blesses good, the sweet singer of Israel whose songs turn pain and suffering into strength.
That night, after Shabbat, I sat down and wrote what I remembered from the rabbi’s talk, together with two questions and extensions of his thought. I sent the account to R’Sabato, who responded favorably. The talk continued to fruitfully kick around my mind, until I requested permission to translate and publish both my record of the class and R’Sabato’s response. The rabbi kindly agreed.
The mini-essay, below, “David Blesses,” was addressed directly to R’Sabato. It can be read in the form of an aspiring jazz musician playing back to a Master what he heard, and what he heard implied, in a song that the Master played live the previous week.
The mini-essay addressed to R’Sabato is followed by his reply and a brief, concluding coda.
(Photo courtesy of Yeshivat Birkat Moshe)
David Blesses
I heard from the honorable Rav Sabato that Revelation depends upon our longing for it. Regarding the verse, “And God said to Moses, ‘I will come to you in a thick cloud, in order that the people may hear when I speak with you and so trust you ever after,’” (Exodus 19:9) you noted that instead of accepting the role of mediator, Moses immediately “reported the people’s words to God.” What words? What did the people say?
Rashi fills out the story. Moses said, “I heard from them their desire to hear from You.” The people said, “We desire to see our King!”
The nation wanted direct contact with God, they thirsted for an unmediated revelation of Divinity, and indeed at Mt. Sinai they heard the first two commandments, “I am The Lord, your God,” and “You shall have no other gods beside me” from the mouth of the Almighty Himself. That was enough. The infinite power was overwhelming, and the people stepped back and asked Moses to speak with God for them.
The Rav emphasized that it is impossible to build our spiritual life on Revelation that is the fruit of longing alone. The impression received from Revelation fades in time, like the impression generated when we entered the Sea of Reeds up to our noses and the waters split, fell upon, and drowned Pharaoh and his troops, the stunning reversal in fortune that gave birth to the Song of the Sea, quickly evaporated in the desert wasteland. Service of God must be grounded in rectified character attributes and the intellect, as we find embodied in the ways of our Fathers, the Patriarchs: Abraham paved the way to serving God through lovingkindness, Isaac paved the way of prayer and Jacob paved the way of Torah.
The Rav then added: King David aspired to innovate a new way in serving God like one of the Fathers of the Nation: the way of song, as it is written: “’May the words of my mouth find favor…’ May the words of my mouth be written and live for generations” (Midrash Tehilim, 1)
David longed to ascend to the peak, sustained connection to God (dveiqut), via the path of song. He didn’t reach his desired destination, but he progressed far, very far, as the Rav elaborated, beginning with the Talmud in Tractate Sanhedrin (117a):
David said before God: Master of the universe, why do we say in our prayers: God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob… but we don’t say: God of David?
God said: I tried them. You haven’t been tried by me.
David said: Master of the universe give me a test, try me.
The sages add:
After God tried David with Bat Sheva, and David failed the test, immediately he prayed that people will refer to “the shield of David” in the blessing that is read aloud after the Haftara on Shabbat: “… because in Your holy name, You swore to him (David) that his light will never be extinguished, forever. Blessed are You Lord, shield of David” (Midrash Tehilim, 18)
King David didn’t succeed in innovating a new way of serving God like one of the Patriarchs, and he suffered greatly in the attempt, but the Rav emphasized that from his life until today David guards us on the way, David’s songs protect us, his music protects us on the path, through our ascents and descents, from joy to hope to a broken heart, when we face chaos, or terror, David’s songs guard the conscious connection, when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, one tank facing fifty tanks, David’s songs guard our consciousness, our conscious connection, the sustained connection to God, David’s songs: the shield of David
The honorable Rav then added a very important and intriguing point. The Talmud in Tractate Pesachim (119b) asks:
What is the meaning of the verse, “And the child grew up and was weaned (va’yigamal) (and Abraham held a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned)?” (Genesis 21:8)
In the future, The Holy One, Blessed be He, will prepare a meal for the righteous on the day that he will extend his lovingkindness (yigmal hasdo) to the descendants of Isaac…
The text in Pesachim continues: in the future, at the time of the end of the festive meal, God will ask Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and Joshua to take a cup of wine and to say the concluding blessing. Each will decline, in turn, until God turns to David and says, “Take, and bless.” And David says in front of the honorable guests:
I will bless, and it is fitting for me to bless, as it says: “I raise the cup of salvation, and call in the name of God” (Psalms 116: 13)
In the end David will bless, which is to say, his way will rise to the top. This is where we ended.
[Note: until this point, I reconstructed the progress of R’ Sabato’s talk. What follows are the questions and extensions of his thought]My question is twofold, and it is connected to the character of King David’s songs.
1) Does the Rav read the verse that the sages interpret (dorshim) at the beginning of the passage in Tractate Pesachim, “And the child grew and was weaned,” as a hint to the meaning of the entire passage (derasha), which is to say, the blessing at the end of the meal symbolizes a fully mature, noble approach to serving God?
2) Does the Rav connect the verse at the conclusion of the passage in Pesachim, “I raise the cup of salvation, and call in the name of God,” to the passage in Tractate Brachot, 60b, where the sages try to understand the Mishna’s directive that “a man is obligated to bless evil as he blesses good” (Brachot, 9:5)? There, a series of interpretations of verses from David’s songs illustrate the fulfilment of the obligation to bless evil as we bless good, including:
R’Tanchuma says from here:
“I raise the cup of salvation, and call in the name of God” (Psalms 116:13)
and
“I find trouble and sorrow, and call in the name of God” (Psalms 116:3-4)
If we follow the echo of the verse, “I raise the cup of salvation…” in the two Talmudic tractates, from Pesachim to Berachot, we hear R Tanchuma justify and deepen the reason why it is fitting for David to bless in the end: he knows how to bless evil like he blesses good. Whether sorrow or salvation, David blesses, and he calls in the name of God. He transforms everything into song, and remains connected. It thus emerges that, through his songs, David paves the way to the elevated faith that Maimonides describes in his commentary to the same Mishnah, “A man is obligated to bless evil as he blesses good”:
A man should adjust his perspective and intend in his prayer to God that everything that happens in his life both evil and good will be a cause for him to achieve true success.
True success, for Maimonides, is knowing God.
The task is exceedingly difficult. Who can face reality honestly and openly in every situation, even when reality is painful and frightening? We need a tool to overcome the obstacles: the songs of David, which are called zmirot, from the language of mizamer, meaning in Hebrew both “… to trim away the twigs with pruning hooks” (Isaiah, 18:5) and “to sing.”
The Songs of David cut down anything and everything that prevents the sustained connection to God, whether the obstacle comes from within or without, accepting the judgment and loving suffering, no matter what, if that’s the price we pay to maintain our presence and to stand in His holy place, “About this the Holy text says: ‘Your laws were zmirot (songs) for me in the home of my fears’ (Psalms 119:4). Which is to say, in those places where I was afraid and in terror, with those songs I cut them down and dispersed them” (Sha’ari Ora, First Gate, 10th Sphere).
So, what I hear in the honorable Rav’s words is that at the end of the festive meal, in the future, David’s songs will revive those who sing them, and we will bless evil as we bless good, from accepting judgment and loving suffering to receiving blessing and embracing love, because (as the Talmud teaches) there is no difference between this world and the days of the Messiah except for subjugation to foreign political domination, the nature of the world will not change, the change will be in our consciousness, a musical consciousness born from heroic strength, and heroic strength born out of our musical consciousness, sing it every day, all that God does, it’s all good, heroic supernal strength born out of the desire to know God in everything – one, the way like the destination, the taste of the tree like the taste of the fruit. In this situation, when the way has become the story, and receiving the infinite flow is no longer so frightening, like it was when we were young, David blesses.
R’Sabato responded:
You said everything, and you said it precisely.
I will only add that I emphasized that when the experience and art which are the way of David are built upon the three ways of the Patriarchs, then it is the highest way.
I agree with everything you wrote.
Coda
I shared my reconstruction of R’Sabato’s talk with some friends. One, who recently saw combat, wrote to me on WhatsApp. He asked not to be named. I will keep it simple and call him Yehuda.
Yehuda: It’s true, the Psalms came to me when the bullets started flying over my head
Aryeh: Do you remember which Psalm?
Yehuda: B’shuv haShem et shivat Tsiyon, When God restores the fortunes of Zion (Psalm 126:1)
The rest of the verse reads, “we see it in a dream…”
Aryeh: Did the second half echo too?
Yehuda: Yes
Aryeh: … at that moment… did it feel like you’re in a dream?
Yehuda: Yes, a very ambivalent dream. You’re fighting, and it’s epic. But you’re in life-threatening danger
Aryeh: Different, other dimensions
Yehuda: Mamash, completely…
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Upcoming Events or Opportunities
Our friends at Qesher present:
Along the Silk Roads to Jerusalem: A Voyage into Bukharian Jewish History and Culture
Embark with us on an exploration of the rich and multilayered history of the ancient Jewish community of Central Asia, the Bukharian Jews.
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Sunday, 30 March 3:00PM EST
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Our friends at Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan in partnership with the American Sephardi Federation present:
The Upper West Side Mimouna Celebration
Celebrate the vibrant conclusion of Passover at the Upper West Side Moroccan Mimouna! Enjoy an unforgettable evening of music, food, and tradition, featuring the enchanting sounds of Layali El Andalus. Indulge in a rich and colorful Mimouna table, overflowing with handmade sweets, traditional mufletas, and refreshing Moroccan mint tea.
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Layali El Andalus breathes new life into the musical traditions of Morocco, Andalusia, North Africa, and the Middle East. Founded by Moroccan-born musician Rachid Halihal (singer, oud, violin), the ensemble, joined by Daphna Mor and other world-class musicians, is committed to preserving this rare and captivating repertoire. Layali El Andalus has graced prestigious music festivals and concert stages across the United States and abroad, with notable performances at MoMA and Lincoln Center.
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