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כעפעפי שחר
כעפעפי שחר הוא המעשה בעזרא סימן טוב ובחבריו, רחמים הכנר העיוור, משה דוד האברך, והדוקטור יהודה טוויל החוקר מן האוניברסיטה.
על ארבעת החברים הירושלמים מספר "הסופר", והסיפור שהוא מספר מכאיב וגם מרגש, וכולו שזור באווירהּ של ירושלים, ברחובותיה, בבתיה, בריחותיה, בשירתה. זו ירושלים העולה מן "העמק שתחת שכונת הפחים בסופו של רחוב בצלאל" ויורדת ועולה שוב אל רחוב הנביאים. שם היה אותו מעשה בעזרא סימן טוב וברחמים, אולי הוא המעשה אשר ממנו באה "אותה צרה שרעשה עליה ירושלים כולה". ואולי לא. כך או כך, אלה ושאר המעשים מתרחשים בשכונת מחנה יהודה הקסומה. אלא שגם שם, במחנה יהודה, "השמחה שָבתה. הכול ידעו שהגורל נחתך והחודשים ספורים".
למהדורת היובל הזאת צירף סבּתו אחרית דבר מיוחדת.
על ארבעת החברים הירושלמים מספר "הסופר", והסיפור שהוא מספר מכאיב וגם מרגש, וכולו שזור באווירהּ של ירושלים, ברחובותיה, בבתיה, בריחותיה, בשירתה. זו ירושלים העולה מן "העמק שתחת שכונת הפחים בסופו של רחוב בצלאל" ויורדת ועולה שוב אל רחוב הנביאים. שם היה אותו מעשה בעזרא סימן טוב וברחמים, אולי הוא המעשה אשר ממנו באה "אותה צרה שרעשה עליה ירושלים כולה". ואולי לא. כך או כך, אלה ושאר המעשים מתרחשים בשכונת מחנה יהודה הקסומה. אלא שגם שם, במחנה יהודה, "השמחה שָבתה. הכול ידעו שהגורל נחתך והחודשים ספורים".
למהדורת היובל הזאת צירף סבּתו אחרית דבר מיוחדת.
176 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
1 person is currently reading
72 people want to read
About the author
Haim Sabato
16 books11 followersHaim 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 25, 2022
כבר מזמן לא היתה קשה עלי הפרידה מדמות כסיימתי איזה ספר כמו שקשה עלי היתה הפרידה מעזרא סימן טוב כשסיימתי כעפעפי שחר של ר' סבתו. בחיי, אם לא אחפש את עזרא סימן טוב ואת רחמים בן כליפה המנגן ואת האברך בבית הכנסת זהרי חמה ובסימטאות שכונת מחנה יהודה בפעם הבא שאהיה בירושלים! .
It has been a long time since I found it so hard to say goodbye to a character from a novel the way I found it hard to say goodbye to Ezra Siman Tov when I finished this novel by Rav Sabato. I swear that the next time I will be in Jerusalem, I will be looking for Ezra, his companion Rahamim the musician and the young scholar in the Zohorei Hama synagogue as well as in the alleyways of Mahaneh Yehudah!
It has been a long time since I found it so hard to say goodbye to a character from a novel the way I found it hard to say goodbye to Ezra Siman Tov when I finished this novel by Rav Sabato. I swear that the next time I will be in Jerusalem, I will be looking for Ezra, his companion Rahamim the musician and the young scholar in the Zohorei Hama synagogue as well as in the alleyways of Mahaneh Yehudah!
February 4, 2020
This is a beautifully written book that captures an aging Yerushalmi, Ezra Siman Tov. As you journey with him, you will meet wonderful teachers and friends, encounter stories and delve into a world steeped in Torah. You will also encounter Ezra facing the challenges entering his 60th year of life in a gentrifying Jerusalem.
Ezra’s life is routinized: he prays, he works, he visits those in need, he reads Tehillim, he experiences life with his rabbis and community. He is not a Torah scholar, but he does embody gamilut hasidim and love of Tehillim and poetry. This life stands in contrast to his academic brother in law, who looks down on the “simple” Ezra who would rather recite poems than read an academic text on their composition. Yet Ezra carries trauma that makes it difficult for him to cope with loss of loved ones, and these traumas are exposed as we read the book.
My one complaint of the book is that we are left bereft of insight into Ezra’s relationship with his wife. The focus of the book is his relationship with men. We are left unexposed to how his relationship with his wife shape him, or how he shaped her. She is a background character
Ezra’s life is routinized: he prays, he works, he visits those in need, he reads Tehillim, he experiences life with his rabbis and community. He is not a Torah scholar, but he does embody gamilut hasidim and love of Tehillim and poetry. This life stands in contrast to his academic brother in law, who looks down on the “simple” Ezra who would rather recite poems than read an academic text on their composition. Yet Ezra carries trauma that makes it difficult for him to cope with loss of loved ones, and these traumas are exposed as we read the book.
My one complaint of the book is that we are left bereft of insight into Ezra’s relationship with his wife. The focus of the book is his relationship with men. We are left unexposed to how his relationship with his wife shape him, or how he shaped her. She is a background character
April 19, 2021
My favorite Haim Sabato novel. Sweet, magical reading of a time and culture that no longer exists, through the eyes of a simple elderly man whose goodness and innocence are beautiful.
September 28, 2025
סיפור שקצת כאב בלב, הרב מדבר על השכונה שאני גדלתי בה, אני מכיר את המקומות, אני מרגיש שאני מכיר את הדמויות.
October 4, 2023
A religious man deals with loss and change:loss of a daughter, job and community.
September 5, 2008
An inspiring tale of a simple Jewish man who lives his faith through everything he does in the normal routines of his day in the Sephardic community of Jerusalem. Even while Ezra Siman Tov cleans and presses prayer shawls in a laundry he feels close to the faith of those wear them,usually young grooms whose brides have given them as the traditional wedding gift. As the secular world slowly erodes the traditional ways of his old neighborhood, he continues to love God and Torah. He is known to everyone as a storyteller and is surrrounded in life by holy and sometimes eccentric characters who are accustomed to stopping him and saying "Ezra, tell us a story!".
Viewed as a pious man by others, Ezra does not feel that he is because he carries a secret sin and is burdened with the heart-breaking loss of a daughter he does not speak of.
Ultimately this is a love story, the love between a man and his God who comforts him through all things. A story for everyone, religious or not, for who is not fed by the things of the spirit? The writing is beautiful. The story is poignant, tender, perfect.
Haim Sabato is an Israeli author who writes in Hebrew. His previous two novels, Aleppo Tales and Adjusting Sights have also been translated into English.
my book blog:
http://freshinkbooks.blogspot.com/
Viewed as a pious man by others, Ezra does not feel that he is because he carries a secret sin and is burdened with the heart-breaking loss of a daughter he does not speak of.
Ultimately this is a love story, the love between a man and his God who comforts him through all things. A story for everyone, religious or not, for who is not fed by the things of the spirit? The writing is beautiful. The story is poignant, tender, perfect.
Haim Sabato is an Israeli author who writes in Hebrew. His previous two novels, Aleppo Tales and Adjusting Sights have also been translated into English.
my book blog:
http://freshinkbooks.blogspot.com/
February 18, 2015
This book made me very sleepy. I will confess I have yet to finish it, for which I feel guilty, as it was given to me to review. I tried very hard, even picking it back up a few times in moments of strong will, but it still kept putting me out like a light. The story is very slow-paced, meandering, one hopes, towards some kind of conclusion, but who knows if it gets there? I did at least get far enough to come across a few interesting moments of revelation, but by the time the story works its way around to them, I couldn't much make myself care. If you are the type who is really into storytelling or likes what they call "quiet books," then I bet you'd enjoy this one. There's no denying it is well-crafted. It may also work as a Jewish interest book -- come to think of it, it is so thoroughly steeped in old-world Judaism it might only work as a Jewish interest book -- but even that wasn't enough to hold my interest. I'm going to have to absolve myself of the guilt (much like the story's main character) and come to terms with the fact that this is one story I simply won't be able to finish.
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August 12, 2014Bought this book while I was in Israel, and enjoyed it although it was not what I expected. Loved reading about the old days of Jerusalem, and imagining how things were on Mahane Yehuda, etc. The main character is extremely devoted, and it was interesting learning about the various styles of worship (though none of them Conservative) at the various shuls he visited. The author was in the tanks division during the Yom Kippur war....where my husband served as a medic. wonder if they ever met?
August 8, 2012
My rating is for the Hebrew version of this book, which is absolutely brilliant.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews