{"id":178511,"date":"2025-07-20T12:40:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-20T09:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.nli.org.il\/?p=178511"},"modified":"2025-07-21T10:45:53","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T07:45:53","slug":"yotam_haim_wings_of_spirit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blognli2026.moonsite.co.il\/en\/yotam_haim_wings_of_spirit\/","title":{"rendered":"Yotam Haim’s “Wings of Spirit”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The small piece of paper was folded and unfolded again and again. Its creases somehow mirrored the emotional state of Avigail Uziel, a student at the “Ulpanat Segula” religious school for girls in Kiryat Motzkin, a town in northern Israel. It was the end of a Shabbat seminar, and around her surged a sea of adolescent chatter, laughter, and heartfelt conversations – girls on the cusp of adulthood, full of dreams and life. But she felt detached, unable to join in. A wall of pain seemed to separate her from all the excitement and joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sitting alone on the grass in the dark, she opened the note – something handed out by a counselor earlier that day – and read the Hebrew words on its back over and over. Here is a translation of those verses:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you will, O mortal,
Ascend, ascend on high.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a mighty power is yours,
You have wings of spirit,
Wings of noble eagles.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deny them not,
Lest they deny you.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seek them,
And straightaway shall they be found.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The original Hebrew:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Im tir\u2019tzeh, ben adam Aleh le-ma’alah, aleh
Ki ko’ach az lekha<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yesh lekha kanfei ruach
Kanfei nesharim abirim<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Al tekha’sh bam
Pen yekhakhsu lekha<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

D’rosh otam
Ve-yimatze’u lekha miyad<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

These words were written by Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook and published posthumously by his student on the eve of World War II.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"997001774120405171
Rabbi Abraham Isaac HaCohen Kook<\/a>. From the Archive of Jewish Education in Israel and the Diaspora, the National Library of Israel<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

More than fifty years later, a teenage girl found strength in them. In the midst of personal turmoil, the words stirred within her – not just as poetry, but as melody. They lifted off the page and took shape in song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until that moment, Uziel’s musical experience was limited to basic guitar strumming. If anyone had told her she would compose a song, she likely would have laughed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there was something that night that called to her. The tune flowed out and began its journey. At first, she sang it – “Wings of Spirit” (Kanfei Ruach<\/em>)- only to family and friends. They, in turn, shared it with others.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Uziel
Avigail Amar Uziel<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Requests soon came in: Can we get a recording? We heard it, were moved by it, and understand you composed it – may we use it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initially, Uziel didn’t bother registering the song or claiming rights. She didn\u2019t even know how to write down the notes. The song lived orally, and passed among people by word of mouth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When friends told her, “We heard someone playing it and they didn\u2019t even say it was yours,” she reached out to the performers. She was flattered and glad people were singing it, but asked that credit be given for the melody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first time Uziel heard “Wings of Spirit” professionally performed was at a public sing-along gathering – a communal Kabbalat Shabbat on the banks of the Alexander Stream – sung by the powerful voice of Israeli artist Lea Shabat. Since then, she\u2019s heard it countless times, interpreted skillfully or informally. One such performance would ultimately alter the song\u2019s path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2015, Rabbi Eliashiv Berlin – son of musician Musa Berlin and a teacher at the Merkaz HaRav yeshiva school, where two of his students were murdered in a terror attack seven years earlier – contacted Uziel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Together with producer Ofir Sobol, they asked to record the song in a studio for the first time, to mark seven years since the tragedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As before, Uziel gave her blessing wholeheartedly. A new version of “Wings of Spirit” was recorded in the shadow of that immense loss, performed by Bini Landau and the Merkaz HaRav high school choir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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