בואי הרוח

by Haim Sabato, חיים סבתו

"מי אתה, ילד? שאל.

עולה חדש, עניתי. כך לימדו אותי לענות לכל שואל. אנחנו עולים חדשים, אני נכדו של חכם שויכה, ממצרים.

כולנו עולים, השיב לי פרקש במהירות, עולים חדשים, עולים ותיקים, גם הארץ הזאת ותיקה וחדשה".

בואי הרוח הוא ספרו הרביעי של חיים סבתו, וגם הפעם נכונה לקוראים הפתעה: הילד אשר זה עתה עלה ממצרים מוצא את עצמו בין האזבסטונים של שכונת בית-מזמיל, הלוא היא קריית-יובל שבירושלים, ונקשר אל מי שרחוק ממנו כרחוק מזרח ממערב: משה פרקש, עולה חדש ותיק יותר, מהונגריה. פרקש מאמץ אל ליבו את הילד. ומכאן נפרש לנגד עינינו סיפורה של משפחה יהודית על ארבעה דורותיה, מן העיירה שבאימפריה האוסטרו-הונגרית המתפוררת, דרך שתי מלחמות עולם, אל עליבותה ותפארתה של המעברה בקצווי ירושלים, ואל העולם המתחדש של הלימוד.

את הסיפור המרתק הזה אנחנו שומעים לסירוגין, כפי שהוא עולה מזכרונם של הילד המצרי, הוא המספר המבוגר, והמבוגר ההונגרי, הוא הילד שעלה מן השריפה הגדולה ועכשיו עסוק בהתחדשות ובתחייה. שלושה פקדונות נותן פרקש בידי חברו הילד, ושלושתם נשמרים וחוזרים. ועל סידור התפילה המיוחד - הפיקדון האחרון - אומר פרקש: "אבא עבר עם הסידור מלחמה אחת נוראה, ואני עברתי איתו מלחמה נוראה ממנה". וכאשר גם הפיקדון הזה חוזר לידיים הראויות לו, תם המעגל שהתחיל, כביכול, בתמימות: "שיכנו אותנו יחד בבית-מזמיל".

Genres: Historical Fiction, Israel, Fiction

162 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Haim Sabato is an Israeli rabbi and author.
Haim Sabato was born to a family of Aleppan-Syrian descent in Cairo. In the 1950s, his family immigrated to Israel and lived in a "ma'abara" (transit camp) in Kiryat HaYovel, Jerusalem. He studied at a Talmud Torah in Bayit Vegan, in the vicinity, and after it attended the "Netiv Meir" yeshiva-high school, also in Bayit Vegan. Rabbi Aryeh Bina, Rosh Yeshiva of "Netiv Meir", was one of his key influences.
After graduation, he joined the "Hesder" program at Yeshivat Hakotel, in the old city of Jerusalem, which combines yeshiva studies with military service. His experiences during the Yom Kippur war, at the age of 21, led him to write Adjusting Sights.
After the war, Sabato spent the next few years at Yeshivat Mercaz Harav, the spiritual home of religious Zionism. After receiving rabbinical ordination, Sabato co-founded Yeshivat Birkat Moshe in Ma'aleh Adumim, near Jerusalem, in 1977.
Sabato's lyrical writing, with sentences studded with phrases drawn from, and referring to, passages in the Bible and Talmud has won him numerous fans and made him a symbol of the "pitfalls" of translating literary works form one language to another. He has published four novels in addition to Rabbinical works.
Sabato's first book, Emet Mi Eretz Titzmach, (published in English as Aleppo Tales), is a collection of short stories relating to his family's ancestral home and community of Aleppo, Syria.
Sabato was awarded the Sapir Prize for Literature in its inaugural year, as well as the Yitzhak Sadeh Prize, for his second work, Teum Kavanot (Adjusting Sights in the English translation), a moving account of the experiences of a soldier in the Yom Kippur war. The book has also been made into a film.
His third publication, Ke-Afapey Shachar (published in English as Dawning of the Day: A Jerusalem Tale), tells the story of Ezra Siman Tov, a religious Jerusalemite coming to terms with a changing world.
Sabato's next work, Boyi Ha-Ruach (published in English as From the Four Winds), describes his experiences as an "oleh chadash" (a new immigrant) in the Israeli "ma'abarot" (typical transit camps of the 1950s).
In his most recent book, Be-Shafrir Chevyon, Sabato returns again to his childhood in "Beit Mazmil", Jerusalem, as a newcomer, with memories from Cairo intermingling with adventures in the monastery of Ein-Karem, and the annual Independence Day exhibition in Jerusalem. Again we meet both the Piutim (religious poetry) and Torah study that dominate Sabato's spiritual world, along with his Yom Kippur War memories, all tied together in a constant search of God, Who often hides from the human eye, when the latter needs him most.

Reviews

[Sharon de Koning Kessel · Rating 3 out of 5]

חיים סבתו מספר על ילדותו, אנשים אותם הכיר ואשר השפיעו על דרכו והחלטתו להיעשות לרב, על מעשים טובים, בני אנוש רחמניים, נדיבות וחום שנבעו מקהילתו. נעים לקרוא את מילותיו ולהיווכח כי על אף העוני הגדול, העוולה והארועים הקשים שפקדו את ישראל באותה תקופה, נותר אדם אופטימי, אדוק ונאמן לאלוהיו אך מכל ספריו אהבתי את דווקא את כעפעפי שחר שכן מעשיות מדברות יותר מכל ללבי

[Y.D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The writing is redeemed by its capacity to engage the reader religiously. The book does what only literature can do. It provides us with a context through which religious concepts are made accessible.

[Liora Levi Gavish · Rating 3 out of 5]

סיפור נוגע ללב במבט חומל על הילד שגדל בשכונת בית מזמיל בירושלים, בעוני ובה הוא פוגש את פרקש. ניצול שואה הונגרי אשר לא מדבר על עברו אך לאט לאט הדברים נחשפים.
הסיפור באמת מרגש ונוגע ללב אבל לא אהבתי את הכתיבה והרגשתי שהספר היה צריך לעבור עריכה טובה יותר כדח שהסיפור יועבר בצורה פרוזאית יותר. כל מיני ציטוטים בספר הפריעו לי לזרימת הסיפור.

[K · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a perfect 3-star book -- didn't love it, didn't hate it. The Hebrew was pleasant and relatively quick and painless to read, for the most part. The story itself was not particularly gripping, but it was interesting for its historical value.

The narrator of this apparently autobiographical novel is a boy who emigrates from Egypt to Israel with his family in the early 1950s. He is unaware of the Holocaust and its ramifications until he befriends an adult, Yisrael Moshe Farkash, a Hungarian Holocaust survivor. Farkash describes his experiences to the narrator and finally entrusts him with the prayer book and gemara which stayed with him throughout his difficult passages -- as an orphan in the beginning of the war, apprenticed to an abusive baker, then during his brief experience in the camps, and finally during his harrowing illegal journey to Israel before the War of Independence. The book ends on a sweet, touching note.

Although the story itself wasn't anything amazing, it was interesting to get a feel for 1950s Israel and the motley crew of immigrants and Holocaust survivors who made up Jerusalem's population then. This book is also a good choice for someone who wants to begin reading in Hebrew and feels intimidated. The Hebrew is clear and simple, but the story can be appreciated by an adult.

[Victoria Raun · Rating 4 out of 5]

I live in Jerusalem, near the neighborhood where Sabato grew up and loved his tales of the area and people.

[Ben Kup · Rating 5 out of 5]

ממש נהנתי. דומה לחוויה שלי בתיאום כוונות, להכנס לתוך הרב סבתו כילד הפעם, להרגיש את החוויות של עולה חדש. מדהים.

[None Ofyourbusiness Loves Israel · Rating 5 out of 5]

The incredible story of a Jewish refugee family expelled by the antisemitic Egyptian regime and their settling in the bucolic edge of the Jerusalem hills making up today's Kiryat Yovel, and Hadassah, but at the time it may as well have been a different planet. In this refugee camp their are joined by other Jews who survived the Shoah, and together, they're building the magnificent miracle of Israel. The heart of the story is the magical friendship between the young author, the Egyptian refugee, and his older neighbor, a Hungrarian Shoah survivor. A truly remarkable experience full of lyrical beauty, exquisite storytelling, nostalgia, and heart-wrenching sadness

[Donna Zeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book. Short but deep. Autobiographical story about a boy growing up during the early days of the State of Israel which was then absorbing immigrants from Eastern and Western Europe and the Arab world which had expelled many of its Jews; and the clash of cultures and life experiences. Beautifully told, the story explodes with kindness, emotion, and love- all understated but abundant.

[K C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very short novel covering in flashbacks the life of three generations from WW1 to present day Israel. I would have prefered more post 1948 Israel and the relations between the Egyptian and Hungarian new immigrants in the absorbtion center, which is how the book started at the beginning but then focused more on the Hungarian experiences in the early 20th century.

[Ben Pashkoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly moving story. Within the tight and non-elaborate writing style of R Sabato, he brings together a series of life stories with a climactic ending that is simply moving.

[Richie Sevrinsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Bo'ee HaRuach" poetically captures the Jerusalem atmosphere during the early years of statehood, even when in prose.

[SaraK · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in English. I liked the description of early life in Israel.