A wonderful portrait of Judaism as a living faith and not an archaic, dead religion.

At the heart of this book lie some of the most engrossing and terrifying first hand accounts of war that I've ever read. Haim Sabato's story of a young and observant soldier fighting in the Tank Corps on the Golan Heights during the Yom Kippur War of 1973 is quite unlike any other book of war writing/memoir that I've previously encountered. Haim's (and his friends') experiences in that dreadful war were all too vivid and real. Threaded throughout the narrative are some of the contemplations, prayers, hymns and rituals, that a religious soldier takes a part in. Although of secular persuasion myself, I found many of these passages were extremely humbling. I was reminded of some of those I served with who were also soldiers while maintaining their religious observance. I always marveled at their dedication and resourcefulness in pursuing their faith in such difficult circumstances - this book reinforces that impression.

In all fairness, I probably would have given this a higher rating had I read it in English. And I feel pretty bad giving it just one star -- a soldier fights in the Yom Kippur War and loses his best friend to enemy fire but not his religious faith. It should be inspiring and close to my heart, right?

Alas, I found the story (such as it was) extremely hard to follow, jumping back and forth around the timeline, mixing various narratives of various soldiers, interspersing things that happened to the author as they were happening during the war with experiences told in flashback from before the war, with a home visit during one of his leaves, with things the author told to a team of soldiers debriefing him after the fact as well as things the author's fellow soldiers told to this team about their own experiences, etc. It seemed less a story than a loose, not particularly organized collection of stream-of-consciousness memories and religious musings from the front lines. Call me anal, but I really needed a beginning, middle, and end.

So even though this was rather short and should have been inspiring, I found reading it to be a chore and couldn't wait to be done. I love my Hebrew book club; I just wish I liked the books more.

כתיבה משובחת עם שילוב נכון של כתיבת קודש.
ספר שמכיל בו הרבה אמונה ואימת המלחמה, הצער והכאב.

ספר על מלחמה ועל אדם, אדם דתי במלחמה. את החלקים בהם תוארו קרבות לא כל כך הבנתי, לא יכולתי אפילו לדמיין, מובן רק שהייתה שם ערבוביה ואי סדר שקשה לתאר. אבל נהניתי כל כך מהכתיבה, מהקול הצלול והנקי של הגיבור המאמין

Unfortunately, a big part of our definition as Israelis have been shaped and sculpted against a short period of time and the most impact on that definition was within the War of Independence (1948), The Six-Day War (1967) and the Yom Kippur War (1973).

No one objectively 'succeeds' in wars. It is very hard to choose a goal that is falling into place of all of the ideas within a country of what constitutes success. Some would say that a war is, by its own virtue, a failure to begin with.

The Yom Kippur War, which is the single prominent background story of this autobiography chapter in the life of Rabbi Haim Sabato, is generally considered a success to Israelis by the term of withstanding a very imminent attack from several fronts when outnumbered, but considered a major failure in terms of losses. There was nothing as this war to the state of Israel, in controversy and falling brothers, husbands and fathers.

Rabbi Sabato take is giving us no option to believe otherwise, but his beautiful hebrew style, almost archaic at times, which is marbled by Talmudic influences and Jewish tradition from youth at Cairo and Italy. His story of the war is the same as everyone, no effort to cover the horrible truth is given to the story but his overall positivity (even when his closest friend has fell during the war) is something to admire.

I loved the style and heartbreaking story has contributed - he is using a gentle, but steady, strokes of color to have us feel the scene and appreciate what those men have gone through.

At times of trouble the question of God's existence meets any believer - to endure this question is something beyond me and I hope never to face the challenge. The story also brings light to the confrontation of the Yeshiva guys that were all enlisted in a sudden rush right at the heart of the most sacred day for them - Yom Kippur, the jewish day of asking for forgiveness from men and god.

I have been reading about the Yom Kippur war recently, starting with “Who by Fire,” then on to “The 2 O’Clock War.” But this is the first soldier’s-eye view.

It’s being uncomfortable at best — terrible food, days and weeks living in filthy clothes, boredom, bad weather, being with an OK bunch of guys, but not with your own family. At worst it’s terror and grief.

Like one other reviewer, I am an atheist, so don’t really understand how religious people feel. But I did understand that the protagonist and his religious friends gained comfort from their readings and discussions. What is the harm in that? Indeed, isn’t it a good thing when conversation (more portable than a chess set or a guitar) helped them endure their horrific circumstances?

Another reviewer complained that the time line was hard to follow. I agree but think the author did that intentionally. He wanted you to feel just a tiny bit of the confusion and surreality of the battlefield: being told to fire when you couldn’t see a target, being told to advance when the gears were locked and you couldn’t move at all, acting (and seeing others act) in ways that violated the procedures you’d practiced during reserve training. Most brilliantly, the protagonist occasionally sees someone acting “by the book” and is comforted by the brief respite from SNAFU and FUBAR.

SPOILER ALERT.
I’m labeling this a spoiler out of an abundance of caution. I think every reader realizes, early, that Dov is gone, and the protagonist’s grief — like a throbbing toothache — cannot be fixed. We, like the protagonist, do not receive official word or incontrovertible evidence. But as the story proceeds, we, like the protagonist, adjust to the reality. There’s no “closure” in the way we’d all like there to be. But closure is a luxury, and there are no luxuries in a war.

My concentration is shot these days, so I found it very hard to focus on this book. It's translated from Hebrew, so that may be part of the problem. Also, it's a soldier's story, and I don't follow the details of military battles well either. But I do love how Jewish faith and liturgy weave seamlessly into the narrative.

An incredibly moving story of friendship and faith amid the confusing tumult of war.

Emotionally difficult, but there was an inspiration on every page despite the so difficult and hard background: You Kippur War, Israel 1973.

לעולם יראה אדם עצמו
חציו זכאי וחציו חיב,
ואת העולם כולו
מחצה זכאי
ומחצה חיב

עשה מצווה אחת
הכריע את עצמו
ואת העולם כולו
לכף זכות

This novel provides a compelling argument for the chaos of war, the multiple perspectives, and how fundamental beliefs can be shaken or reinforced. The juxtaposition of the mundane --concrete religious practice, bound by time of day and year --with war made this read fascinating on multiple levels. We know the outcome of the Yom Kippur war writ large; Sabato provides a view of the war, micro scale.
I do not know how well the experiences of these citizen soldiers transcends to those of other soldiers, nor do I know if the Israeli army today is different in terms of composition, religious practice, etc. But the melting pot and social glue that is the Israeli army provides a common experience of (unfortunately) every generation experiencing war, with their own same but different experiences.

I felt I should read the book because everyone reads it but I didn't get any profound message from it. I sometimes had trouble with the jumps in time. It is sad how disorganized everything was and how many people were killed or injured because of it.