Adjusting Sights

A terriffic account of one man's loss and recovery of his own soul. Haim Sabato provides an inside, in-depth look at the life of an Israeli tanker on the front lines, while describing his inner thoughts and feelings. A must-read for philosophers and military buffs alike Adjusting Sights is a timeless classic. In the book, friends are lost, comradeship is gained, bravery is swept aside and one man's quest for peace begins. Follow Sabato through the 73 Arab- Israeli war from his perspective. Feel every shot from the main gun, hear every clang of spent shells, and reflect in the prayers and thoughts of a lonely soldier.

Too realistic to be thought of as fiction, Sabato's engrossing accounty of a tanker gunner's experiences in the Golan during the 1973 Yom Kippur War in Israel blend traditional Jewish liturgy with wartime action. The story explores the grueling physical and psychological realities of war experienced as a soldier the Israeli tank corps. Haim relates his personal experience as he seeks to find an answer to what became of his yeshiva friend and study partner Dov who joined the tank corps at the same time that he did. This is a gripping account of what it means to be a soldier and how just one individual tries to cope in the chaos of an unexpected war. Long after the story ends, liturgical phrases will be sure to pop up with new meaning in the reader's mind! This, my friends, is the ultimate never-ending story.

I am currently serving with the U.S. Army in Iraq and I just finished reading this wonderful book. As a religious person and a soldier it was amazing to me to read so many of my own thoughts and feelings in this book. This is a man who understands war and the part faith plays in the development of a soldier, as well as the resources soldiers may have in battle. He doesn't avoid the hard questions, but faces them head on. It is beautifully written, and the images will stay with me for a long time. The icing on the cake is the enhanced love the reader receives for the Land,the history and the People of Israel.

I read the novel in the Hebrew original -- and marked passages for sharing with friends and family! Using language that can be only described as beautfiul, the book brings us inside the deepest thoughts and fears and feelings of the yeshiva student turned soldier. Rarely do we get to share the continuing struggles with memory and philosphy of a yeshiva head (the author is currently co-Rosh Yeshiva of the large and well-regarded Yeshivat Birkat Moshe in Maaleh Adumim. For me the most revealing portion of the book was the return to query (challenge?) the Amishonver Rabbi who blessed the author and his best friend on the eve of battle. Like the rest of the book, the section with the Amishonver Rabbi makes no attmpt to tie loose ends toghether. Recommended!

This book was written by a man whom I personally studied under while spending half a year at his Yeshiva in Maaleh Adumim, Israel. I can not even begin to describe his pure love and dedication to everything he does, and how he touches the hearts of so many of his followers. He comes from a great family of Rabbis which mostly moved to Israel some 40 years ago. His approach to his student body seemed to be unattatched and uninterested, but I quickly learned the opposite was true-that he chose this method so that no student should feel left out, and he would always say that everyone should feel free to approach him to speak. I approached him many times and his advice is filtered from all impurities that a normal mind would usually take into account. Haim Sabato won many awards in Israel for his writings, and is very well known and recognized as one of the country's most prominent writers and Judaic scholars. He is also famous for his poetic talents- his ability to create poetic pieces in seconds make one of the world's most talented poets. This book, which was translated from hebrew, accurately represents all of what was going on at the time the book was written. A must read for all who can appreciate this greatness.