RE: Yerushalayim shel zahav

[Mordechai Kamel <mkamel...>]

Ari,

I believe that when Naomi Shemer first went to the market after the
liberation of the old city, she saw exactly what she described in her song,
a market that was, in fact, empty - devoid of people.  Many Jerusalemites
were in the old city within hours or days of the victory, and life in the
market did not return to normal for weeks.

Mordi

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
[mailto:owner-jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org]On Behalf Of Ari Davidow
Sent: Monday, September 23, 2002 22:59
To: World music from a Jewish slant
Subject: Re: Yerushalayim shel zahav


Without wanting to get in a big discussion about this--I can represent what
I have been told about objections to "Jerusalem of Gold," but am not a
primary source, and apparently no one else on the list is--but this issue is
not with the "Hashiveynu." Rather, I have been told that when Shemer
describes the markets in the Old City as "empty" there is a problem. The
markets were empty of Jews (gee, wonder how that happened), but certainly in
no other sense "empty". In that sense, the poem is seen by some as
dehumanizing those who were teeming in the markets--the Arabs--but who
weren't Jewish.

I hope I have represented this reasonably. Please don't press me on it, as I
agree, partially, with the premise (well, yes, it is rather unfortunate to
refer to the Old City markets as empty when they aren't), but can probably
also be heard to have some problems with the disingenuousness of the
argument (already pointed out--how did we get there and who is taking
responsibility?).

So, no, hard as it is to believe, I don't think this is a theological thing
:-).

ari

At 02:47 AM 9/24/2002 +0000, you wrote:
>I don't mean or intend to get sidetracked into a discussion of settlements,
>etc.--surely not the place--but I do want to note, in re Lori's comment on
>(by comparison) "Al Kol Eyle," that "the last line of the chorus--"return
us
>and we will be returned...to the good land"--expresses a core traditional
>Jewish value, iterated and reiterated (as Shlomo Riskin used to say)
>throughout the liturgy--including (Jewish calendar-wise) both the High
>Holidays liturgy and the Regalim (e.g., Sukkot) liturgy.  Obviously some
may
>find support in that lyric for a particular political position--which
really
>means a particular priority--that not all share, but I'm not sure what Lori
>means by the "original more general [meaning]."
>
>Naomi Shemer may have appropriated the "Hashiveinu" line from Eits Chayim
>and Tanach and conjoined it to "the good land"--in the original context it
>refers to a more general "returning" (teshuvah) to G*d), so maybe that's
>what Lori means; but that Jews should return to the Land of Israel is,
>again, a core traditional value--not a political spin.
>
>--Robert Cohen
>
>
>
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