Israeli Music is Amazing
Monday, February 11, 2008
I picked up 15 new Israeli CDs this weekend.
Yes, fifteen. Hey, I get to this store twice a year at best-- I have to stock up.
Among the albums, I bought Sarit Hadad's "Ashlayot Metukot" ("Sweet Illusions"):
The album contains one of the most powerful songs I've ever heard. Titled, "Shma Elohai (Kshe'Halev Bocheh)" it was written after the "brutal lynching and mutilation" of two IDF reservists, Vadim Nurzhitz and Yossi Avrahami in October of 2000. If you don't recall the incident, perhaps the infamous picture will shake your memory bank:
The palestinian terrorist holds up hands covered in Israeli blood, moments before the bodies of the soldiers are thrown out of the window for the crowd below to pummel and destroy.
Here are the lyrics in English, translation via HebrewSongs.com:
SHMA ELOHAI (KSHE'HALEV BOCHEH)The store owner, who is Israeli, always plays the CDs for me before I buy them. "Listen before you buy! We'll play anything you like-- that way you know you like it before you buy it!" My Hebrew is rough, so I always ask her what the songs are about; inevitably, she replies, "They're all love songs, always love songs." But they're more than that. The crap you listen to on Top 40 constitutes "love songs" to most Americans. Israeli musicians may sing a lot about love, but it isn't always romantic and fun-- sometimes it is hard and painful, like the love lost through senseless murder, and love sought from enemies out of the desire to live in peace.
HEAR MY GOD (WHEN THE HEART CRIES)
When the heart cries
only God hears
The pain rises out of the soul
A man falls down before he sinks down
With a little prayer (he) cuts the silence
Shma (Hear) Israel my God,
you're the omnipotent
You gave me my life,
you gave me everything
In my eyes a tear,
the heart cries quietly
And when the heart is quiet,
the soul screams
Shma (Hear) Israel my God,
now I am alone
Make me strong my God;
make it that I won't be afraid
The pain is big,
and there's no where to run away
End it because I can't take it anymore
(make the end of it because I have no more energy left within me)
When the heart cries,
Time stands still
All of a sudden, the man sees his entire life
He doesn't want to go to the unknown
He cries to his God right before a big fall
Israeli music is powerful. The store owner was amazed at my interest in and knowledge of Israeli pop culture. "American Jewishness doesn't really have much to offer," I explained to her, "Israel is where our culture is."
"Right?! Exactly!" And then she gave me four CDs for free.
Labels: culture, Israel, Jewish American, Jewishness, Judaism, music, Sarit Hadad, Shma Elohai, Zionism
posted by Shoshana @ 9:45 PM
