Benaia Barabi - Sunbeam

Finally! 

Last Sunday we woke up not knowing who would be released, and by the end of the day, we were all in love with Emily Damari, Romi Gonen, and Doron Steinbrecher, so happy to see them finally reunited with their mothers. Today was just as emotional, and words can't express how moving it was to see the release of Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Danielle Gilboa, and Naama Levy, and their long-awaited reunion with their parents. And at the same time, I couldn't stop thinking of the mothers who will never be reunited with their children, and of the mothers still waiting to embrace their children, together with the children eagerly waiting to embrace their fathers. We can't stop until everyone is back.

Another lovely translation by Moshe Kaye from LyricsTranslate. There are dark clouds ahead, but let's enjoy the sunny day. ♥

Don't go,

My sunbeam

Our day hasn't ended yet

Why are you, hiding

Clouds all over.

Don't cry, like the rain

Isn't it a shame to waste the tears?

Warm hands, want

To embrace you for hours.

I'll put on songs that you love,

I'll give you a day to relax

I'm captured when you laugh

Like this at me.

Tell me what you want

So that I won't have any excuse.

When there aren't any words you get emotional

Like this at me.

Smile, 

It enhances your beauty

It makes my day.

If suddenly you fall asleep

You'll smile also when you dream

Planes in the skies,

People on trains

Don't cry, my sunbeam

This is your time to live.

I'll put on songs that you love

I'll give you a day to relax

I'm captured when you laugh

Like this at me.

Tell me what you want, 

So that I won't have any excuse.

When there aren't any words you get emotional

Like this at me.

Don't cry, my sunbeam,

Take the last verse for yourself.

How do you always say

We'll meet at first light.

I'll put on songs that you love,

I'll give you a day to relax.

I'm captured when you laugh,

Like this at me.

Tell me what you want,

So that I won't have any excuse.

When there aren't any words you get emotional

Like this at me.

Roni Dalumi and Idan Raichel - Come Back

Holding our breath.

After an anxious few days, the government finally voted in favor of approving the hostage-ceasefire agreement with Hamas and tomorrow three Israeli hostages will be released, the first among 33 who will be released over six weeks in the first phase of the long-awaited deal. I'm overwhelmed with joy that the agreement is finally happening, but I'm also frustrated and angry that it took so long to finalize a deal that could have happened in May, with a growing understanding that it partly didn't happen because of internal politics. We're about to begin a terrifying rollercoaster of emotions in what feels like a dark and twisted reality game. We don't know the fate of the 33 hostages who will be released, the ones alive will be in much poorer condition than the hostages released last November and an unclear number are no longer alive. My heart is with the families of the hostages, I can't even begin to imagine what they are going through. The families of the hostages who will be released in the second phase have stressed the importance of seeing the deal through, though I fear that politics will get in the way, again. I'm also worried that the next time there will be a terror attack (and there will be one regardless of the deal), there will be criticism of the deal and an even larger rift in our fragile society. On Wednesday evening a vocal protester against the deal shared that what motivated him to protest in the streets is the fact that his brother was murdered by a terrorist who was released in the Gilad Shalit hostage deal, and he will do all he can to prevent other families from having to live through a similar experience in the future. I feel for him, but I also feel for my relative who received a draft from the army and has no choice but to serve as an IDF observer, the same role as the 5 women soldiers who were kidnapped from the Nachal Oz base on October 7th. I also feel for all the families who live near the Gaza border and need to know that they will not be abandoned by the country again. When there was talk that the deal might not happen a part of me felt that I couldn't live in a country that won't return its kidnapped residents, no matter the price. It's difficult enough to live here, we need to know that we will be protected and that we will do all we can to protect each other.

This moving song was released a few weeks after October 7th and captures the longing, and dreadful uncertainty, of so many families. Hopefully, all of them will get the closure they truly deserve.

The hours of fatigue that don't let time pass by

The heavy legs that can't find a reason to move

The days and nights like the faces in the pictures

Everything stops moving when you aren't here

And I wake from a dream and feel you are close

And then call out to you from the night

Come back, come back today

I so wanted you to come

I wish that you'll show up today without advance notice

I'm a tower of light

That from the distance will appear again

I wish that you'll show up today without advance notice

Translation by Moshe Kaye, taken from LyricsTranslate

Yael Deckelbaum & Geva Alon - A Kid in Me

A warm and comforting light amidst the darkness.

Things are happening, people are marching, filling every city square

I try to blend in to find myself among them, but I'm lost somewhere

There's a tragic beauty in the way they move like birds out there

I wake up hoping it was just a nightmare that I dreamed

There's a voice of peace that lights my road

A kid in me that never grows old

A lot of things to be upset about when seeing what goes on

but I got enough anxieties to handle on my own

The garden needs my tending and my woman needs me to lean on

I'm not that strong but still I hope that I'll survive the coming storm

'Cause there's a voice of peace that lights my road

A kid in me that never grows old

And it hurts like hell 

When I can't hear his voice

It's a fire that burns

Through my body and soul

And it hurts like hell

When I can't hear his voice

There's a kid in me

And he never grows old

No he never grows old.

bfan.link/a-kid-in-me

Korin Elal - To Live

The world isn't the same without Korin Elal in it. I was actually thinking of posting this song before I heard of Korin's death after battling cancer. I listened to it quite a lot in the past year, the lyrics piercing in me more than before, not to mention the unforgettable melody. It's a song of radical vulnerability and Korin never shied away from who she was or what she felt. She will be dearly missed.

I don't want to fall

Into a moment of vanity, a moment of foolishness

I don't want you

Shooting words without meaning

I don't want a stormy sea again

Without ebb or flow

I don't want road dust

Hiding my steps

I don't want to be silent

Afraid of my words

I don't want to burn forever

Without water on my face

I just want you

A bird hanging on a string

Of love, to live

And not to die

I don't want sunsets

While the sun is still shining

I don't want to know

Why good turns into bad

I don't want to sleep alone

In a cold bed

I just want you

A bird hanging on a string

Of love, to live

And not to die

Ziv Shachar feat. Shazamat - Day After Tomorrow

♥

It's your birthday

Today

So I sent you a flower bouquet

And I laughed

At myself

A cliché of living in a movie 

Romance like in the movies

An hour and a bit from Tel Aviv

Givat Halfon

White night

When is the day after tomorrow

I'm tired

I miss you

And I'm sick of the smell

I find in my pocket

A snack for Sig

You sent a video of him barking

I drove straight into the mud

Just not to hear or see

The street, the routine

They're already in the day after tomorrow

And it's scary

To remember

How I swallowed the lie

That someone

Cares for me too

I could sleep peacefully then

How I found comfort

In the earth that shook

It feels strange

I don't fall asleep

I'll wake up the day after tomorrow

I went with good reasons

I don't remember most of them anymore

And I try not to hate

But the love is already dead

There's a dead end at the end

I don't feel anything anymore

Another gray day

A white night

Until the day after tomorrow

Jimbo J with Orit Tashoma and Avraham Lagasa - In the Place Where I Live

IndieCity is back, and this season is dedicated to the Gaza Envelope. Seven music videos were filmed at various places in the Gaza Envelope and one in Hostages Square in Tel Aviv. Check them all out here. "In the Place Where I Live" is taken from Jimbo J's latest album, which was completed just before October 7th and features texts about his life in Kibbutz Or HaNer (just outside of Sderot). Since filming this clip, he's returned to the kibbutz with his family, to the same beautiful landscape but to a very different reality. I've been thinking a lot about the families in the Gaza Envelope. In many cases, the parents grew up somewhere else but fell in love with the landscape, the laid-back atmosphere, and the opportunity to live in a community with like-minded neighbors. How aware were they of the threat from Gaza? Up until October 7th, there was a common saying that life in the area was 99% heaven and 1% hell, a peaceful life that was sometimes interrupted by a heavy round of rockets during which families often packed up and left for a quieter place in the country, usually for about a week or so. The biggest threat was tunnels leading into Israel but that had been solved by the IDF's above-and-bellow-ground barrier, and in any case, families were reassured that they were being protected by the army. Amir Tibon, who moved to Kibbutz Nachal Oz with his wife in 2014 and started a family there, describes in his moving memoir "The Gates of Gaza" not just his father's heroic journey to rescue his family on October 7th but also how life was in the kibbutz dating back to its founding in 1953. The book also gives a clear-eyed account of Israel's (and specifically Netanyahu's) relationship with Hamas and what led to this sense of quiet and security. It's still not clear how things will develop in the South, and in the North, but I doubt that families living by the border will be reassured again by "quiet will be answered with quiet".

*English subtitles are available in the video's settings

Efrat Gosh - To See the Light

In memory of the beautiful souls ruthlessly murdered on October 7th. This heartbreaking video first aired about two weeks after the massacre when the fate of so many festival-goers was still unclear. Ofir Tzarfati, who was celebrating his 27th birthday at the festival, was declared dead in late November and on December 1st the IDF announced that it had rescued his body from Gaza. Ruth Peretz, 16, born with cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy, was a fixture at music raves and was confirmed dead after many days of uncertainty. Inbar Heyman, 27, volunteered at the festival as a helper, assisting those who felt unwell. In December her family was informed of her murder in captivity. Mia Schem, 22, was released in late November and has said that she can't begin her recovery until the remaining hostages return home, a statement echoed by other hostages who were released. 

Although this beautiful song wasn't released as a memorial song, it quickly became one and was often played on the radio on quiet days after terrorist attacks and at memorial ceremonies. Because of the lyrics, up until October 7th it was often associated with surviving the Holocaust and the forest that I would see in my mind when listening to it was in Eastern Europe. Now I see in my mind the Reim forest and when I listen to the lyrics I think of the hostages in the tunnels yearning to be free. We won't be able to see the light until they will be able to see the light.

For I saw my path disappear

In a tangled forest, among grove walls

And in the bleeding ground

My feet were planted, struck roots

And for a moment I could hear

Leaves teaching their song

And I wanted to rise high

To bloom with them

I knew the drops of the rain

Gathering inside me, falling under me

And the cold and desperate wind

Froze me, weighed on me

And for a moment I could touch

The edge of the gray pain

And I wanted to rise high

To see the light

To see the light

They say the sky is blue above us

Full of lights

Maybe one day I too will be able to see

To see

And I fell to the ground, silently

I closed my eyes, I sealed my heart

And I felt how I was breaking down

From all my pain, from all my loneliness

And for a moment I could run away

Like a feather on a bird's wing

And I managed to rise high

To see the light

To see the light