Monday, September 29, 2008

A new beginning

(To see the details please click on the photo.)

Jewish life in Israel moves forward according to the Hebrew calendar.
The calendar ends abruptly tonight on (coincidentally) both the 29th of Elul and the 29th of September. With the new year starting tomorrow, we need to hang up a new calendar--for a new beginning.
This makes me think of an inspiring song by Naomi Shemer called
"Hakhagiga Nigmeret (Lakum Makhar Baboker)." Here is a translation:


And sometimes, the celebration's over
The lights go out
The trumpet calls
Goodnight to the violins
The last watch welcomes (kisses) the third (one)
To wake tomorrow morning
And begin from the beginning
refrain:
Let's wake tomorrow morning
With a new song in our hearts
And sing it in our strength, and sing it in our pain
To hear the flutes on the fresh, free breeze
And to begin from the beginning [Ulehatkhil mibereshit ].


YouTube has a 1976 video of Hakol Over Habibi group singing the song. Click here to hear it.
Again, a good year to you, Shana tova!

8 comments:

  1. What a beautiful song! Thanks for drawing the attention to this video. I wish you a very happy and blessed New Year!

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  2. Do you have multiple calendars in your house? As a student of history, the Julian calendar has always been a tricky one when writing essays on pre-revolutionary Russia!

    I will also admit that I’m glad that the French revolutionary calendar and clocks never took off. Too complex for my brain to work around!

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  3. Toda raba (thanks much), dear friends, for your good wishes!

    Kris, yes, for sure I also need a regular Gregorian calendar on my desk. Some Hebrew calendars have the dates arranged from right to left (just like we write Hebrew) and that messes up my mind.
    So the French Revolution wanted a new clock and new calendar?! Oi veh!
    So when was the "October" Revolution in Russia...? hehe

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