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UP CLOSE WITH ROSH YESHIVAH– TURNED-NOVELIST HAIM SABATO Photo courtesy of BY SHIRA LEIBOWITZ SCHMIDT AND JESSICA SETBON The Toby Press Haim Sabato, who descends from a long line of rabbis from Aleppo, Syria, was born in Cairo, but was forced to leave as a child in 1957. His family settled in Jerusalem, and he attended a hesder yeshivah and served in the army. Nearly three decades after Rabbi Sabato fought in the Yom Kippur War, his account of his experiences was published in the highly acclaimed novel Adjusting Sights, which was awarded the prestigious Sapir Prize. He has also written novels including Aleppo Tales and The Dawning of the Day. Rabbi Sabato, fifty-four, is the rabbi-teacher of first-year students at the hesder yeshivah in Ma’aleh Adumim, where he lives with his wife, Shoshana, and their two sons, aged twelve and thirteen. “Publish or perish” is a concept familiar to most writers. But to Rabbi Haim Sabato it is more like publish and punish. “Publishing? For me it’s punishment,” says Rabbi Sabato. Rabbi Sabato, who refers to himself as a teacher of Torah and not a professional writer, explains, “I always wanted to write. But publishing is a hardship due to the ensuing publicity. In the yeshivah we educate the students to find value in what is hidden.” 1 JA: Given your distaste for the hoopla, This sentiment reverberates in lar sweetness filled his entire being. Often how did you come to publish your first Rabbi Sabato’s books. he felt in his heart what he was writing. book, Aleppo Tales? That same Jerusalem night, when He sat and wrote, with Sarah at his side Sabato: “As a student at Yeshivat Ezra arrived home, he sat at the table, gazing at him. Sometimes she could see a took out a notebook and wrote down the Hakotel [which combines yeshivah ray of light illumine his face, that same story he had recounted to Rahamim. Ezra studies and army service], I would write light that filled his face when he returned said to himself, “I will write just one short stories and show them to my from studying Talmud with Rahamim, story.” As he was writing he was reminded friends and family. Some of them were and this gave her such pleasure. Slowly of another story, and then of another. Ezra printed in the newspaper of the national but surely the stories gathered and the was neither a writer nor the son of a religious sector, HaZofeh. After I partici- entire notebook filled up. He went and writer, neither a man of letters nor an purchased another notebook and before pated in founding our hesder yeshivah, imaginative storyteller. He was a simple 2 long, a pile of notebooks filled with his Birkat Moshe in Ma’aleh Adumim, a man. But he knew how to tell a tale. stories lay on the table (from The graduate of the first class, Nachum What he heard, what he saw, what he felt, Dawning of the Day). Langenthal, showed them to the pub- so he wrote. He wrote in a simple style. In lisher of Yedioth Ahronoth, who then the language spoken by the people of JA: Two of your books reflect the asked if he could publish them in book Jerusalem in Mahane Yehudah and the form. Bukharian Quarter, the Syrian Aleppo tradition, i.e., customs of the “For me, writing is a refuge. It is a Synagogue, language filled with the grace Jews of Aleppo. What is unique about room of my own. Writing my first book of Jerusalem. The hour that he spent writ- that culture? brought me a certain inner peace.” ing was very dear to him, and a particu- Sabato: “Many in my grandparents’ 28 JEWISH ACTION Fall 5767/2006 generation in Aleppo were pious schol- row. When he shut up his fabric shop each ars who were also merchants. My mater- day, grandfather would return to his stud- Fiction by Haim Sabato: nal grandfather, Haham Aharon ies and sit among the sages of the Beit Adjusting Sights Shweka, had tremendous influence on Midrash (from Aleppo Tales). Translated by Hillel Halkin me.” London, 2003 In keeping with the ways of many JA: But you were born in Egypt!? 154 pages of the sages of Aleppo, my grandfather did Sabato: “Before World War I, my not make a living from the Torah. He was grandparents left for Egypt, where I was Aleppo Tales a trader in fabrics, spending a few hours born. There my grandfather established Translated by Philip Simpson in his shop and the rest of the day at his a yeshivah where the youth would study London, 2005 studies. What would have been surprising early in the morning, and return to 269 pages in Eretz Israel was considered normal in study after work. The yeshivah was a The Dawning of the Day: Aleppo. Once a certain scholar came from magnet that attracted young people and The Story of Ezra Siman Tov Eretz Israel to Aleppo. He went into the inculcated a love of Torah in them. My Translated by Yaacob Dweck Beit Midrash and asked the local scholars grandfather was the moving spirit London, 2006 about a halakhic ruling that was the behind it. When the war [the Sinai 200 pages object of a dispute in Eretz Israel. They Campaign] broke out in 1956, my could not answer him. They told him: father was arrested and they would only All English translations of Haim “We have no answer, but there is a sage release him on the condition that we Sabato’s books are published by among us; perhaps he can answer your leave Egypt. I was five when we fled to The Toby Press: question.” He asked them: “And where is Israel, where relatives brought us to an www.tobypress.com. he studying?” They told him: “In the tex- immigrant camp near Kiryat Yovel, tile market.” He went to the market and Jerusalem. When my grandfather found him grappling with rolls of satin rejoined us, I saw how this unique sage what the dignitary had said, he was silent. fabric. He asked him: “Is it possible you didn’t command respect among our new I could see how hurt grandfather was, but have knowledge of such-and-such a Israeli neighbors. It was painful.” he said nothing (from Aleppo Tales). halakha?” The sage gave him the answer, then said, “Wait for me, I have a transac- In Aleppo, after his sermon, grand- JA: Your grandfather Haham Aharon father would walk from the synagogue to tion to complete with this roll of fabric, Shweka was your first teacher? and then I shall tell you the source.” He his home, and would be treated with great went to wherever he went, sold whatever respect. The entire congregation stood in Sabato: “Yes. Also my father, when he he sold, and returned to his shop. He took two rows, bowing their heads deferentially would return to us from his work in the the scholar from Israel by the hand, went and taking his hands to kiss them. In my postal bank, he would teach Torah to with him to the Beit Midrash, climbed childhood, when I read in the tractate the other immigrant children, along up, took from the bookcase a copy of Yoma of the respect accorded to the High with my brothers and me. Even if I Nehar Shalom, showed him the reference, Priest on Yom Kippur, this was how I saw would complain of a headache, they and returned to his shop. The scholar said grandfather, leaving the synagogue after a never excused me from studying. Today to the people in the Beit Midrash: “Have sermon. [In Jerusalem, in contrast, at the I don’t let my boys off easily either. you taken leave of your senses? You have funeral for Rabbi Herzog in 1959] a dig- “My mother was well-educated, such a treasure in your midst, and yet you nitary said to me, “So you are the sage’s especially in mathematics and French let him waste his time among spools of grandson? Your grandfather is a great literature. My father emphasized reli- fabric?” man, and a phenomenal preacher, but gious studies but insisted that my broth- Our teaching has always been that here his merits are not recognized. There ers and I acquire a general education in it is a fine thing when Talmud Torah is are so many famous rabbis that I can’t ask addition to a deep grounding in Torah. combined with secular employment, since the organizers to allow one who is Then afterward, we could decide what success in both fields discourages any incli- unknown to participate.” I went back to direction to take. Among my uncles are nation to defect from the straight and nar- report to grandfather. When I told him mathematicians and physicists; among Shira Leibowitz Schmidt has six children and eight grandchildren. She is a lapsed engineer and co-authored Old Wine, New Flasks: Reflections on Science and Jewish Tradition (New York, 1997) with Nobel chemist Roald Hoffmann. She is currently affiliated with the Haredi College in Jerusalem and writes polemical articles on controversial issues for The Jerusalem Post. Jessica Setbon, a native of San Antonio and a former member of the Harvard Sailing Team, is a mother of five who studied comparative religion in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Tel Aviv. She has lectured on translation challenges at Yad Vashem and the Israel Translators’ Association conference. Shira and Jessica run a translation center in Netanya called Mother Tongue, and are currently translating into English the autobiography of the for- mer chief rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, which is a bestseller in Israel.

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