Shai Tsabari: Al Tifchad (“Have no Fear”)

It is extremely difficult not to feel fear in this moment in time, which is why Ehud Banai’s song Al Tifchad (“Have no Fear”) has become so special to singer Shai Tsabari in the aftermath of October 7.

Tsabari is known as a soulful vocalist who frequently and in innovative ways brings together East and West and puts the Jewish tradition into a modern context. This is why it shouldn’t come as a surprise that he loves the music of Ehud Banai – one of Israel’s most revered and prolific singer-songwriters who has been doing exactly those things since the beginning of his career in the 1980s.

Ehud Banai wrote Al Tifchad for his father, actor Yaakov Banai, when the latter was ill. Yaakov passed away a year after this classic song was released, and it continues to accompany many on the difficult journey that is life.

One of those people is Shai Tsabari. Al Tifchad came out on Banai’s third solo album, Hashlishi ("The Third”), released in 1992, while Tsabari was in high school. The singer recalls how Banai’s song gave him comfort in his difficult teenage years when his cousin, who was also his best friend, joined the IDF’s combat unit. Now this song is giving Tsabari comfort once more – and he hopes that whoever listens to his rendition of it will feel the same way too.

One of the key lines in the song is a paraphrase of a famous sentence attributed to Rabbi Nachman of Breslov: “If you believe that it can be broken, believe that it can be fixed”. These optimistic words seem relevant now more than ever, which is why, despite often feeling disheartened, Tsabari ultimately believes that it is important to continue singing to people. And that’s exactly what he does.