Tzvi Yehezkeli: "I Have Been on Screen for Over 20 Years, But Never Exposed Like This"

Though the voice of Yehezkeli, and even his hands are his, the words he utters, weaving our conversation, sound to me, for the first time, as if drawn from realms more elevated and profound than usual. The figure and voice of Tzvi Yehezkeli, head of the Arab affairs desk of 'Channel 10 News', have been identified in the Israeli public for the past two decades with all things concerning the Arab world and its ongoing events.

For this reason, among others, it takes several long seconds for what occurs before my ears to connect and settle in the mind and heart, but in an instant, as soon as it happens, everything turns pleasant, familiar, and it seems to me as if things have always been this way.

"For a long time, I thought about launching a program that would express the process I have been going through in recent years," Yehezkeli shares candidly at the beginning of our conversation, held in honor of the launch of the 'Ahavat Olam' program on the Hidabroot channel. In this program, Yehezkeli collaborates with Rabbi Daniel Cohen, the rabbi of Bat Ayin settlement, a talented creator, and workshop facilitator. In each episode, they discuss a specific meaningful topic, incorporating relevant musical and singing segments.

"Quite a few people think that if someone returns to faith, they are always in a deep and pleasant connection with Hashem, and everything is good in their lives," Yehezkeli continues. "But there are things that people carry with them, becoming quite complicated in life.

"A person, for instance, can study a lot of Torah, perform mitzvot, and try to be a sweet and kosher Jew, but at the same time might often be angry at home, find it difficult with his wife, find it hard to reveal the love he has with Hashem to those around him, or he might find prayer, seclusion, and more very challenging.

"Many times it's easier to convince someone to keep Shabbat than to really listen to their children or be fully attentive at home. In recent years, I discovered that the Torah guides us on how to behave in all areas of life, but often it's harder to learn how to be a father, husband, leader at home, how to seclude properly, than how to fulfill more 'conventional' mitzvot.

"I think the main common denominator for all I spoke about just now is love. The revelation of simple love and the work needed to achieve it. This is how the idea of the new program we were blessed to create - 'Ahavat Olam' - was born. The idea arose from understanding that Hashem is love, Torah is love, and we only wish to discover it in the world. And that's our role.

"I know that for many, the presence of love in the various spheres of their lives is very much lacking. Because if it happens to me, it can happen to others too. I also know it's painful and hard. When the desire and need arose, we proposed this to Hidabroot, but we didn't know if they would take it. It's a bit different from what the channel usually does. To our delight, they understood the great light here, went for it with full force, and produced an amazing show. In this regard, it's worth especially mentioning the show's director, Revital Bellali Tzimring, for her professional and dedicated work."

After Twenty Years

Alongside Yehezkeli's words about the new insights he has learned, which he is now trying to convey to others, indeed hovers the question of his occupation for the first time in such depth, in topics not identified with his routine work in ordinary days. "Television is, as you know, not new to me. I have been working for over 20 years as a journalist covering other worlds, sometimes very remote ones. I have been trying for quite a few years to bring to the Israeli public the most interesting and important happenings in the Arab world.

"But relatively recently, I suddenly noticed that maybe things that seem completely natural to me might be very special and significant for other people. I don't recommend consuming a lot of news, but at the end of the day – it happens a lot, and as a result, there are many people who watched me over the years and saw signs on the screen of the change I underwent in my life. Gradually I changed in front of them, and today they already see me with a kippah and a beard.

"For me, this process is familiar, because of course, I went through it closely, and my private life changed significantly. For instance, today, my children learn, thank God, in a Torah school, and it seems natural to me, but for people who see it from the outside – it's not always simple and clear. Despite the change they see on the screen, they also see that I continue in my role, and here begins their desire to know what happened to me.

"There was a moment when I realized I need to reveal a bit more about the world in which I now live. Also, just to explain to the curious, and more importantly – for the essence of the matter. To spread these deep and good things as much as possible. I understood I had to make a program about Avodat Hashem. About how to be a kosher Jew. The program 'Ahavat Olam' is the result. For me, it's very exciting and special. I have been on television for over 20 years, but I have never been exposed in this way."

Is the program aimed mainly at baalei teshuva, or for every man and woman in Israel, wherever they are?

"First of all, in my opinion, everyone who serves Hashem is a baal teshuva. Even someone who grew up in a religious home and has been religious all their life is, in a sense, a baal teshuva. Because every servant of Hashem needs to improve, introspect, think 'here I wasn't right with this', 'here I want to start anew', or in other words – to repent.

"Teshuva is not just about starting to keep Shabbat. Teshuva is every smallest thought, which is really big, on how I am improving in my Avodat Hashem. By the way, the most intense healing process in our lives is teshuva, and following it comes love.

"Moreover, Rabbi Nachman teaches us that teshuva never ends. According to him, there is a concept worth knowing, and that is: 'Teshuva on teshuva'. In simple words, this means that tomorrow I will need to repent for the teshuva I did today.

"I'm doing teshuva now for something, but tomorrow or in a few days I will do teshuva for not doing the teshuva process well enough. Straight enough. Clean enough. And so it continues, more and more, in an endless process. It needs to be done with joy, of course, and it should strengthen us and not weaken us, but it is, as mentioned, a very important thing.

"And along with everything I said, I believe this program has a special added value for baalei teshuva, in the more accepted sense of the word. Baalei teshuva usually initially have very high lights, but when they weaken or disappear, say after ten years, it's very important to internalize the tools and insights we talked about in the program.

"In this context, it should be said that I think it's impossible to really separate between things. That is, to separate between mitzvot between man and Hashem and mitzvot between man and his fellow. Your conduct at home is also a reflection of your Avodat Hashem. One affects the other and nourishes it. But for some reason, it's less talked about how a person behaves in their own home."

My Wife in High Spirits

Throughout our conversation, Yehezkeli's words flow and are cohesive, and as indeed appears on the small screen - his strength is evident in his speech. However, Yehezkeli reveals that during the program's production stages, it was discovered that there is a certain difficulty in conveying the complex messages they wished to transmit, with the tools at their disposal.

"In the world of media, it is commonly said that the medium is the message. That is, the media itself – radio, television, newspaper, etc., are part of the message being conveyed. And it was difficult for us to embed what we truly wanted to say in the television medium. On television, generally, messages are short and superficial, whereas the messages we wanted to convey are deep and sometimes also require patience and time, which are not abundant in the television medium.

"I think one of the reasons that, thank God, we ultimately succeeded, is Rabbi Daniel's participation in the program. Our connection is very strong and precise. Rabbi Daniel is the rabbi of Bat Ayin, where I live, and for several years I have been privileged to study the daily Daf Yomi with him. In these lessons, I immediately noticed that he has a very special view of reality.

Rabbi Daniel Cohen

"During the study, I realized that Rabbi Daniel delves into very interesting depths, for instance in discussions on what a dispute is, and where it meets us in our lives. Moreover, my wife would return in such high spirits on Motzei Shabbat from the melaveh malka he conducts, so it was even clearer to me that there is a special person here with a unique Torah. Rabbi Daniel is a learned scholar, a guide for many baalei teshuva, who uses music to reach and bring others to wonderful levels of closeness to Hashem, and he is one of the few who can create a program like the one we, thank God, created.

"Additionally, one of the things that enriched the program the most is that we filmed it in Bat Ayin. Beyond it being the most natural place for us, Bat Ayin is a wonderful place for Avodat Hashem, Bat Ayin is the calm and beauty of nature, it's immersion in the spring, and it's a space that is very suitable for baalei teshuva. In many other places, baalei teshuva are often erased or expelled, but here there is a lot of acceptance, and a genuine feeling that everyone has a place and an answer."

On the Way to Filming, Stopping at the Spring

Beyond the great impact Yehezkeli hopes the new program will have on many audiences, he shares with us the significant internal changes it has generated within him. "We went through a very special process in working on this program. A process that is still not over, even though the cameras are off.

"Television is a tough business. Filming involves timing, outputs, great investment, precise coordination between many people and skills, and more. And sometimes this load catches me between several worlds. Sometimes, for instance, I would arrive at the Daf Yomi lesson with Rabbi Daniel after a whole night engaged in what happens in Gaza, or in the middle of work on a new series, etc.

"It's not easy at all to jump between these worlds, and one must know how to live with them in peace, how to get through them correctly, and even how each can enhance the other. For this, a certain softness is needed. I believe that, thanks to the program, I received tools on this topic, and I have softened a lot for the better during the program's production.

"Moreover, one of the things that most influenced me, and still does, is that as part of the preparations for the program, Rabbi Daniel and I talked about things related to it, like talks about traits such as anger, and I suddenly see him on Shabbat, when I'm angry about something, and then say to myself: 'Hey, you can't be angry'. Remember everything you said and heard.

"In general, from our conversations and the preparation for them, I took a lot. I took powerful and good insights on prayer, on listening to your spouse, on the fact that it's not good to push children and it's better to let them be who they are, and more. On this matter, of educating children, I can share something strong that happened during the filming: We talked about educating children, and how one must be patient with them, and exactly on that day, I brought the children with me to the filming. They, on their part, had a lot of fun, and of course, began to get wild there, and this immediately tested me. The filming was under time pressure, and you want it to come out as good as possible and also as genuine as possible, and in the midst of this, I had to work on my own calmness and not get angry at the children.

"Fortunately, we have our ways to relieve stress," says Yehezkeli with a big smile, as a casual laugh rolls from his throat. "On one of the filming days, there was great pressure, and we felt we were tense. That we must relax and only then continue. So we decided to go, the Rabbi and I, to immerse in the spring to calm down. In the spring, we also prayed, and asked Hashem to help us, and that the filming day would proceed well and calmly. Thank God, it indeed happened.

"In conclusion and to finish the matter, I can say with full confidence that we are the big winners of this whole thing. We thoroughly prepared for the program, delved into issues, internalized them, expressed them during filming, and thus internalized them again, more strongly. After all this, if the programs we filmed help others – that's really, really excellent. The most wonderful thing I received from this program, and in general the most wonderful thing in the world, is to be in giving."

The 'Ahavat Olam' program will air on the Hidabroot Channel on Wednesdays at 21:00, and in rerun on Motzei Shabbat Holy at 23:00. The program will also be available on the VOD page of the website.