Yuval Raphael – New Day Will Rise

Good luck Yuval! It was amazing to watch Yuval's journey on 'A Star is Born', from a girl who dreamed of singing professionally but never put herself out there, to the winner of the show and our representative in this year's Eurovision. During the show, she said that surviving the Nova massacre gave her the courage to fulfill her dreams, capturing our hearts along the way with her calm presence and beautiful voice. No matter what happens, it's so happy to see her live life to the fullest and enjoy her journey. 

And even if you say goodbye

You'll never go away

You are the rainbow of my sky

My colours in the grey

My only wish upon a star

Sunshine in the day

The only song that my piano ever plays

And even if you say goodbye

You'll always be around

To lift me up and take me high

Keep my feet close to the ground

Are you proud of me tonight

Dreams are coming true

I choose the light

Nothing to lose if I lose you

New day will rise

Life will go on

Everyone cries

Don't cry alone

Darkness will fade

All the pain will go by

But we will stay

Even if you say goodbye

Et meme si tu dis adieu (And even if you say goodbye)

Tu ne partiras jamais (You'll never go away)

T'es l'arc-en-ciel de mon ciel bleu (You are the rainbow of my sky)

Mes couleurs dans le gris (My colours in the grey)

Et mon seul souhait sous un ciel d'art (My only wish upon a star)

Un rayons dans ma journee (Sunshine in the day)

La seule chanson que mon piano peut jouer (The only song that my piano ever plays)

New day will rise

Life will go on

Everyone cries

Don't cry alone

Darkness will fade

All the pain will go by

But we will stay

Even you say 

New day will rise

Life will go on

Everyone cries

Don't cry alone

Darkness will fade

All the pain will go by

But you will stay

The love of my life

מים רבים

לא יכבו

את האהבה 

ונהרות לא ישטםוה

(Many waters cannot quench love. Neither can the floods drown it)

New day will rise

Everyone cries

Don't cry alone

Darkness will fade

All the pain will go by

But we will stay

Even if you say goodbye

A new day will rise

New day will rise

Aviv Guedj - Little Sun

Another incomplete holiday.

Little sun, come and fall on this narrow room

Come and fall

Little sun, come and light up this sad house

Come and light up

Don't tell me what you think

Just tell me what you feel

You don't care, you're burning slowly

And you don't know about what

Little sun, come and wake up this broken man

This captive man

What are you waiting for?

I'll circle around you

To warm up a little next to you

The sands of the south came and covered me

The storms of the north came and scattered me

All around

Little sun

Come, come today

I arranged a place for us

What are you waiting for?

I'll circle around you

To warm up a little next to you

Little sun, come and light up this sad house

Come and light up

Don't tell me what you think

Just tell me what you feel

Rotem Bar Or - Who

♥

Who will build the future if not us, who

From this ruined land we will grow

I want to plant a tree inside your heart

Inside my heart

If not us, who

Will magnetize the spring and the gold

If not us, who will love

If not us, who will say Shalom

Somehow even now

If not us, who will guard the garden

Will guard and will be happy, so happy

From the bunker will escape until everything blooms again

If not us, who knows that every story is always about them

If not us, who will love

If not us, who

If the mountain does not come to Muhammad

We will go to the mountain

If not us, who

Who will build the future if not us, who

From this ruined land we will grow

I want to plant a tree inside your heart

Inside my heart

If not us, who

rotembaror.bandcamp.com

Zehu Ze - Along the Sea

Every Friday morning I check to see which songs Zehu Ze performed in their weekly show the night before. They usually perform two songs - one with a guest and the other one on their own. The song they choose to perform on their own often feels like a barometer, a few minutes that capture the country's mood that week, and Thursday's choice was no exception. A chill went down my spine when I heard their version of the late Ofra Haza's timeless song, which has long been associated with Yitzhak Rabin's assassination after she performed it at his memorial service (I took the translation here from the description in the video). Obviously, there is no comparison to Ofra's singing, and Zehu Ze's performance was more of a tribute to her and the song's legacy. I couldn't help but gasp at the relevance of the line 'I will run into the fire if they return from there' and when Shlomo Baraba closed his eyes after singing the line 'And the one who disappeared, will he return, or is he already dead?'. I heard in an episode of the podcast 'One Song' that the song was written by Ayala Ashrov when she was just 19, and is about coping with her boyfriend's sudden loss of his sister, which happened very early in their relationship. The song reached Ofra and her producer, Bezalel Aloni, and they loved it but Bezalel made two significant changes to the lyrics. The dark line "So why try and continue now to live" became "So why try and continue now to cry" and in the original song, Ayala wrote the line "And the one who disappeared, he won't return because he's already dead". Bezalel told Ayala that the line must be changed because it's too pessimistic, he has to come back, there is no greater hope than for people who are gone to return. 

It's been a difficult time lately with so much happening all at once. The ceasefire collapsed and Netanyahu decided to fire Ronen Bar, the Shin Bet chief due to a "lack of trust" at a very questionable time, to say the least. There is a severe possibility that the government will not abide the High Court's order preventing Bar's immediate dismissal and it's not clear at all where things are headed and what will happen with the hostages. One thing for certain is that as Bezalel said, there must always be hope.

Tell me how to stop the tears,

Tell me where there is another world to live in,

Tell me why there is no truth, only illusions

So why try and continue now to cry?

Along the length of the sea

There are no waves, there is a world

Broken into fragments on the pier

Along the length of the sea

There are no waves, there is a world

Broken into fragments on the pier

Tell me how to stop the tears

Tell me where there's another world to live in

When people run into an inferno as into the sea

I will run into the fire if they return from there

Along the length of the sea

There are no waves, there is a world

Broken into fragments on the pier

Along the length of the sea

There are no waves, there is a world

Broken into fragments on the pier

Tell me how you live with death

Hiding the tears every night

Tell me, how much longer?

The fire that calls me is not really there

And the one who disappeared, will he return, or is he already dead?

Along the length of the sea

There are no waves, there is a world

Broken into fragments on the pier

Along the length of the sea

There are no waves, there is a world

Broken into fragments on the pier

Tell me how to stop the tears,

Tell me how...

The Backyard - Will We Know How to Be Reborn Again

Everything lies here in the balance

The abysses are open 

We have come to the threshold 

War or brothers

A week of mourning and reflection. On Wednesday, we watched Yarden Bibas's heartbreaking eulogy for his wife Shiri and children Ariel and Kfir at their funeral. On Thursday, the bodies of four hostages were returned to Israel for burial: Itzik Elgarat, Tsahi Idan, Shlomo Mantzur, and Ohad Yahalomi. 59 hostages remain in Gaza, and it is not clear when they will be released. I'm still thinking about the interview that Eli Sharabi gave on Thursday night, in which he shared chilling details from his captivity. During most of his captivity, he was held in terrible conditions in a tunnel together with Or Levy and Eliya Cohen, both recently released, and with Alon Ohel, who remains in captivity. He said that the main reason he decided to do the interview was to advocate for Alon's urgent release, as well as the other remaining hostages in Gaza. It was touching and chilling to hear about how, as the oldest hostage among the four, he took on a father role and prepared Alon for his time in captivity on his own. Later in the interview, he talks about how much the country has changed since the war, and I can see the sadness and frustration in his eyes upon learning how the hostage situation has become so political. I thought of this song, written by Yankele Rotblit in 2005, after the second Intifada and the disengagement from Gaza. The Backyard, Rotblit's group with a trio of musicians, gave it a new life, and it was released last year during the war. The moving performance here is from last year's alternative "torch-dousing and hope-lighting" ceremony, which was organized by hostage families and was held during the government's Independence Eve torch-lighting ceremony. I don't know if we were ready to answer the questions the song asks back then, during the intense fighting stage, but now we don't have a choice.

Shlomo Artzi and Eretz Nehederet - We Don't Need

Thursday was tough. I tried to avoid the news most of the day, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to work. In the evening I saw footage of the four coffins being brought to Israel, footage which was interrupted by the breaking news of three buses exploding, thankfully all empty, and two more were found with explosive devices, in what clearly was a botched terrorist attack. I woke up the next morning to the shocking news that while the forensic experts had identified the bodies of Oded Lifshitz and the two young boys Ariel and Kfir Bibas, they found that the fourth body sent by Hamas didn't belong to their mother, Shiri Bibas. Poor Yarden, I thought to myself, as I'm sure many others thought as well, now he has to go through this ordeal? It only got worse when we learned in the afternoon that Ariel and Kfir, who were just 4 years old and 9 months old when they were kidnapped, were brutally murdered by terrorists with their bare hands. Shiri's body was returned by Hamas later in the evening and today the forensic experts confirmed that there is no sign that she was killed in an air strike. The image of a terrified Shiri holding her two boys closely while surrounded by terrorists on October 7th will forever be etched in our minds. We will never forget them and we will never forget that she and her boys were taken hostage three hours after the attack began, while Yarden had gone out to try to protect them and the kibbutz. And yet, I will try to remember images of the Bibas family from happier times.

Today we saw the joyous release of six hostages: Eliya Cohen, Omer Shem-Tov, Tal Shoham, Omer Wenkert, Hisham al-Sayed, and Avera Mengistu. Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed had been held captive in Gaza for over a decade, after entering on their own. Omer Cohen, Omer Shem-Tov, and Eliya Cohen were abducted from the Nova festival while Tal Shoham was taken hostage from Kibbutz Be'eri. Today they finally reunited with their families after 505 days and Tal reunited with his wife and two children, who were also taken hostage and were released last November. There are 63 hostages still in Gaza, and at least 20 are confirmed to be alive. While there is understandable outrage at Hamas over the fate of the Bibas family, we can't neglect the remaining hostages, and they all need to be urgently rescued in a hostage deal.

It was a strange week because while my social media feed was filled with images of broken orange hearts mourning the Bibas family, it was also filled with clips from SNL's 50th anniversary special and Glambots from the red carpet. I thought of our SNL, Eretz Nehederet, and how they delicately navigated satire during the war. This clip is taken from the first episode of their 21st season, which aired just a few weeks after October 7th. I don't remember much from the episode, just that every laugh felt like a release and how emotional it was to see the cast singing this classic with Shlomo Artzi, a song originally written in 1970 and still so relevant today.

Our eyes are dry from tears

And our mouths are left speechless

What else can we ask for, tell me what else

We've asked for almost everything

Give us the rain only when it's time

And in the spring, spread flowers for us

And let him return home again

We don't need more than that

We've already suffered a thousand scars

Deep inside we hid a sigh

Our eyes are dry from crying

Tell me we've already passed the test

Give us the rain only when it's time

And in the spring, spread flowers for us

And let her be with him again

We don't need more than that

We've already covered one hill after another

We buried our hearts among the cypresses

Soon the sigh will break out

Take this as a very personal prayer

Give us the rain only when it's time

And in the spring, spread flowers for us

And let us see him again

We don't need more than that

Give us the rain only when it's time

Give us the rain only when it's time

Lovely translation from Lyrhub.

Alon Oleartchik - Let's Hug

Sagui Dekel-Chen, Iair Horn, and Sasha Troufanov, all from Kibbutz Nir Oz, are finally in Israel after 498 days in hell. It was a tense week, heightened by Trump's reckless threat for 'all hell to come down on Gaza' if all the hostages are not released, a threat embraced enthusiastically by the far-right ministers who opposed the hostage deal. Obviously, all the hostages should be released, the sooner the better, but it's clear at this point that any return to fighting will put the remaining hostages in immediate danger, especially after we've learned more about the harsh conditions in which they are being held. Kol adam olam umlo'o, every person is an entire universe, and I am thrilled to see that three universes were saved today, though the road to recovery is just beginning. Iair was abducted with his younger brother Eitan, who is still in Gaza and set to be released only in the second phase of the deal. Sasha was taken hostage along with his grandmother, his mother, and his girlfriend. The three were released last November and he learned today that his father was murdered on October 7th. Sagui learned that his family had luckily survived the massacre in Nir Oz - his wife had given birth two months later and his three daughters were safe and okay. Sagui's wife had also helped run his business while he was in captivity and in all of the interviews with her I was so impressed with how calm and collected she seemed, maybe because she had to stay strong for her daughters. Today she will finally be able to embrace him, a happy ending that almost didn't happen.

Hana Goldberg, who wrote the lyrics to this heartwarming song, said she woke up one morning and felt the urge to hug someone. It was released in 2004, during the Second Intifada, and there are hints of the darkness in the background. I love how charming it is, a reminder to hold on tightly to the sweet moments, no matter how dark things are.

If you're a bit sad

Feeling bad and hurt

If you need me

You have a loving man

If you're lying

There, by yourself

Let me, in the dark

Hold your hand

Let's hug, we'll get lost

Let's hug in a tight slow dance

If you're shivering

In the hot night

If you're afraid

That everything good is gone

Come touch

Come to me

Yes, you know

I'll dance with you forever

Let's hug, we'll get lost

Let's hug in a tight slow dance

Let's hug, we'll get lost

Let's hug in a tight slow dance