Berry Sakharof - The Other

A post I came across from the InDnegev festival: 25 years ago, Berry Sakharof's The Other was released, a special and different album, demanding and sometimes gloomy, released into a difficult and chaotic national atmosphere - terrorist attacks, exploding buses, and the Second Intifada.
Out of this chaos and difficulty, a glimmer of hope emerged from Sakharof's work through a gaze "towards the Other", inspired by the writings of the Jewish-French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas and the ethics he developed, based on a direct encounter with "the face of the Other". At times, this moral imperative is stated explicitly, at other moments in the album, it and its implications are implied and illustrated as an alternative to how 'Israeliness' deals with the complex reality.

The Other is a timeless work rooted in a very, very specific time, and it seems that even today the materials created a quarter of a century ago still resonate and are incredibly relevant to this current, confusing, and harsh period.

The decision we made to keep InDnegev in Mitzpe Gvulot and in the Gaza Envelope, taking part in the area's renewed flourishing, was quick and very clear, back in the dark days of October 2023.

And yet, throughout this whole period, we've grappled with the value of this decision and what it means: what is the message and meaning of our existential need to be here in this space, what we're able to do, and what our role is in this moment and in this time.

The Other holds within it many of the answers to the questions that occupied us during this period (and a few new ones...)

Engaging in creative work in a period of chaos, confusion, and pain, speaking and writing honestly and directly about reality as we experience and understand it, and constantly trying to direct an open and loving gaze at and about the other, not out of fear and terror, but out of the desire to discover the humanity in him and in us.

InDnegev strives to be an open and enabling space, capable of containing complexities and imagining the reality in which we would like to live. This year we have chosen to mark and to highlight this work as a central theme that will guide the festival, both internally and externally, and many of the artworks at the festival will focus on the Other.

We invite you to dive into this incredible work again, which even from the distance of time still sounds amazing, and to join us in the rebuilding of InDnegev, this year in its full format again.

I was only familiar with Monsoon, the only single from The Other, so I heard the album for the first time, and wow, it really blew me away. It was just what I needed to hear. Here is the complete album, with the help of translations from LyricsTranslate:

Movie

Day, day and night

You're in a different movie

Monsoon 

We'll burn time, we'll burn, burn / Everything that's between us

Let the moment pass / The past is still ahead of us

Just as I came, I left / It's all dreams

And maybe I wasn't there to love 

I must have forgotten / Maybe I went far

I can't love you from up close

The thirst for love / And a hunger that lasts

And there is a lily and there is a thorn in it / And a small scratch in the heart

Just as you came to me you left me / It's all dreams

And maybe you weren't there to love

I must have been forgotten / You went far

It must be like that in dreams

Trembling

The house is trembling over me

Wind from the sea, fire on the mountain

Crooked and disjointed

Here it begins, here it ends

Everyone is on their feet

Half a pill, half erased

Time is split in two

The clock ticks backwards

And I see double

A black and white light of illusions

The house is trembling over me, swaying side to side

And it seems that in the meantime

The Messiah is waiting for an invitation

On the cellphone, in the bizarre

In a dream and in hope

The house is trembling over me

A crack is bleeding from the ceiling

The fear in the eyes

And the heart, the heart is in a suitcase

Smoke on the water

The sun is gray, the light is blocked

The noise in the ears

The sweat that sticks to the body

And I see double...

Dust on the Shoes

It's so nice to just walk / As if we were never here

In light steps on the sidewalk / Let the streets clean you

There is a bustle all around / Like bees when springtime arrives

Sometimes it seems we are not alone / Or I am you, we are everyone

We are everyone

There are those who hide their horns / And others who have glued wings to themselves

Walking to the beat, everyone on their feet / Left right, right and left, dust on the shoes

There is a bustle all around / Like bees when springtime arrives

Sometimes it seems we are not alone / Or I am you, we are everyone

We are everyone

Madness Again 

Madness again / Drilling in my head

From the closet / The demon escapes

Just like that, suddenly / The rope broke

In an ancient fervor / The dam was breached

Someone said (these are) the birth pangs of the Messiah/ Today it burns (but tomorrow) tomorrow it will grow

What is hidden from you promises / That the answer my friend is blowing in the wind

No solution / is certain

The horizon is close / The wound is open

Again the dream / Is caught in the net

And into the imagination / Reality invades

Someone said..

Seeing but Not Seeing

And these are the days / nights of canned goods / eyes up and down and sideways / seeing but not seeing / so little is necessary / so much is needed / moving moving moving / lost in relationships / and the love boat / shows only reruns / on those days / the heart is locked up / converting the pain into the pain of others / the heart is locked up / they go and sing / an anthem to indifference / a voice still in the heart gets lost / seeing but not seeing / in a sea of holes / the whole is always greater than the sum of parts / mine is his is yours / yours is not mine / it doesn't matter / you and I, they've said it before / it doesn't matter / just a tool

The Other

Let the mouth speak

Let the tongue release

With the face to the other

Who you did not know

The train will whistle

It's time to get on

The carriage of the spirits

That you forgot

So do not be afraid

And do not look from the sidelines

Because you are not alone in the world

With the face towards the other

You will discover yourself

With the face towards the other

The barrier will break

The word will bridge

The enemy is a friend

Who you neglected

So do not be afraid

And do not look from the sidelines

Because you are not alone in the world

With the face

Towards the other

I Surrender to You

You can never see the signs

Of the angels on the lines

What's already etched like a letter

On the faces of the go-getters

Not on my face, no, not at all

Because you tell me to heed your call

And in this world there's no distance

From you to me that can't be missed

I leave so I can return once more

Swift as a heart, bright as a light's allure

Give up on me, give up..

Please...

I descend to the ships below

Caught up in all the storms that blow

Tell me what

Tell me what's with you?

I'm choking amidst the debris

Breathing deep the waves of the sea

Tell me what

Tell me what's with you?

Your voice is like childhood days

Too strong, refusing to phase

With you, it'll be hard to die

Foolish to sink in pain's lie

The day fades without compromise

The blindness of the nights' disguise

Strikes forever its fears in vain

I'm tired of this hunger's strain

I leave so I can return once more

Broken like a heart, weak like a light's allure

Give up on me, give up...

Please...

I escape outside of time's hold

And you pull me back, so bold

I surrender

I surrender to you

The love that doesn't let go

This body, why is it torn so?

I surrender

I surrender to you

I descend to the ships below

Caught up in all the storms that blow

I'm choking amidst the debris

Casting deep the waves of the sea

I surrender

I surrender to you

Brilliant translation by Pentas

There Is, There Is, There Is

An array of colors above the water

Good morning, skies

There is, there is, there is

Glasses, shoes

Teeth marks

There is, there is, there is

This is how we pass

Through all kinds of things

This is how we know

Chocolate bars

The memory is still sweet

Who is alone and who is together

We have no fear

None, none, none

There is a place, there is a time

And there are all kinds of things

In motion every time

Like always...

City of Refuge 

A stunning cover to Ehud Banai's classic.

Before this drizzle turns into a flood

I must find an unlocked gate

Because the blues came back to me again

I must leave, I must move

On the winding road between Acre and Safed

In Tiberias on the dock, I go all the way down to Eilat

Cast out, fleeing, seeking a city of refuge

Cast out, fleeing, seeking - a city of refuge

Out on the horizon, the distant lights sparkle

I will get there with my last bit of strength

And you, wait for me at the entrance and turn on the light

A man returns to you from the frost

Take me to the altar, before I break

And until the truth comes out I will hide in you

Because you, yes you, will be my - city of refuge

Yes, until the truth comes out I will hide in you

Until the storm passes and the ice breaks

Until a flowing spring opens and gushes forth

Until the judge comes and acquits us

You, yes you, will be my - city of refuge

Master of the Universe

This haunting song was written by Bari Hazak, Z"'L, a soldier who fell in the Yom Kippur War.

Please amplify the strength of your signal

I can't hear you over here, I don't know

Did you stick a piece of shrapnel in the antenna's lapel again?

You're so gentle

Why are you so soft?

Why are you so civil?

Do I sound clear? Over,

Over, you're breaking up too

You sound injured, you're

In a valley well-surrounded

By mountains and a different Kinneret

Please announce the strength of your signal

Can't see your face on the radar

Why aren't you driving a half-track?

Why aren't you fighting?

Should I send a motorized patrol your way?

I am certain

That it won't arrive and won't return

A black wound

Please lower the strength of your signal

The treetops of the cypresses

Are whispering your name in vain as evening falls

And the lonely Northern Star

Where will it steer your army of wagons?

Where will it lead you with them?

Please close your eyes

I hear you now, Roger

You can finally die

Bereaved father, I can no longer feel

The tears of winter will say Kaddish for you

The End