I Thought I Was Perfect and Invincible

Yossi Bachar, 36, lives in Jerusalem. He’s a father of four, studies Torah in a yeshiva every morning, and teaches martial arts in the evenings. He might seem like any other observant Jew walking the streets of Jerusalem, but behind the man holding a Gemara lies a powerful story of transformation.

“I grew up in a secular home in Mevaseret Zion near Jerusalem,” Yossi shares in his interview with Hidabroot Weekend. “We were very far from Judaism. Aside from my father lighting Chanukah candles, we had no Jewish practice at all. I didn’t believe in a Creator, and I didn’t even know that Jews are supposed to pray three times a day.”

During his army service, Yossi served in Shimshon, an elite IDF unit that was especially active in Gaza at the time. Thanks to his advanced combat skills, he became an instructor in hand-to-hand combat and counter-terrorism at a military training base. After completing his service, like many young Israelis, he went abroad to explore and search for meaning. He ended up in the Far East, where he immersed himself in the world of martial arts.

Yossi’s dedication paid off. He began competing in international tournaments and rose to the top of his field, eventually becoming a world champion in Pancration, a French martial art. “I started training when I was 12 and have fought in hundreds of matches,” he explains. “During my peak, I competed in 14 professional fights. One of the championships was in France, in Jiu Jitsu and I lost due to a technical issue. But the other, held in Greece, was in a style called Pancrase, and I won. It was basically free-style fighting where almost anything is allowed. Today it’s called M.M.A.—Mixed Martial Arts, the most popular professional fighting sport in the world.”

He fought in Thailand, France, Brazil, Australia. But his life began to shift around 2001, while preparing for the World Championship in Greece. “I was training four to six hours a day. Mornings were spent running through the mountains, then gym, then specific fighting drills. Between sessions, I would rest at my cousin’s apartment.”

One day, his cousin apologized and said he had plans with a friend, but that they’d come back to the apartment soon. When they arrived, the friend turned out to be a Haredi Jew, a visibly observant man. “At first I didn’t understand what was going on,” Yossi recalls, “but it turned out my cousin had started learning Torah. They would study together while I watched TV.”

This went on for a few days. Out of politeness, Yossi began turning off the TV while they learned. At first, he listened with “half an ear,” but before long, he found himself joining the discussion. “Something opened inside me,” he says. “A light, a deep wisdom, and a truth I couldn’t ignore.”

As he began to awaken spiritually, he developed a new approach to fighting. Before each match, he would say the Shema Yisrael prayer and win. “After every victory, I started talking to Hashem, just simple, honest words of gratitude. I didn’t know much about Torah back then. The only mitzvah I remembered was putting on tefillin from my bar mitzvah.”

That was the beginning of his return to Judaism. In 2005, he came back to Israel and left his fighting career behind to dive into Torah study. “What woke me u  wasn’t some dramatic crisis. It was realizing how inflated my ego had become—and seeing the immense, infinite wisdom of the Torah world. I had thought I was perfect, invincible like some sort of divine warrior, chas v’shalom (Heaven forbid). And to be honest, I had been fed a lot of lies about the religious world, especially about the Haredim.”

Today, Yossi learns at the Chut Shel Chesed kollel in Jerusalem under Rabbi Shalom Arush, a well-known teacher of emunah. He studies until 3:00 p.m. each day. Afterward, he changes out of his yeshiva clothes, puts on his training gear, and goes to work teaching martial arts at various locations. He still fights but in a very different way.

“I use my background in martial arts to support my family, but always under the guidance of my rabbis. The truth is, the most meaningful victories are in the battle of Torah. That’s the fight that really brings joy,” he says with a smile.