Songs Of Jerusalem

J'lem from Dominus flevit — A view westward toward Jerusalem from the Church of Dominus flevit on the Mount of Olives
(Photo by Berthold Werner)
Click to enlarge. Click again to enlarge further

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.

We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.

For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.

How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?

If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.

If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.

Psalm 137:1-6

Setting politics completely aside, I confess to a love of two songs related to Jerusalem.

One is Yerushalayim shel zahav, or “Jerusalem of Gold”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JH8gtdDA5x0

The other is HaTikvah, “The Hope,” which is the Israeli national anthem:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eR-xRwPvU6I

(The actual music commences at about the one-minute mark. Classical music buffs will have no difficulty recognizing the melody’s debt to Bedrich Smetana’s wonderful Die Moldau.)

As long as the Jewish spirit is yearning deep in the heart,With eyes turned toward the East, looking toward Zion,

Then our hope – the two-thousand-year-old hope – will not be lost:

To be a free people in our land,

The land of Zion and Jerusalem.

Kol ode balevav
P’nimah –Nefesh Yehudi homiyah

Ulfa’atey mizrach kadimah
Ayin l’tzion tzofiyah.

Ode lo avdah tikvatenu
Hatikvah bat shnot alpayim:

L’hiyot am chofshi b’artzenu –
Eretz Tzion v’Yerushalayim.

Posted from Jerusalem, Israel