language

HIGH CULTURE, POPULAR CULTURE, HEBREW ALL OVER by RABBI DAVID GEDZELMAN One pervasive way ontemporary Israeli culture ties its highest rather than the interrogative. Every person is expressions to its most popular forms like a tree of the fi eld, solitary, yearning and in which high Cusing elements of the Hebrew language growing. in ways that convey an ongoing enthusiasm for In a 2011 interview, Zach claimed that he culture is made Hebrew as the central medium of the Zionist wrote the poem with the fi rst Lebanon War on enterprise and the culture of Israel. This was true his mind and that the poem was one of protest. accessible through at Israel’s founding and has continued through (“A Poet’s Poet,” by Eli Eliahu, Haaretz, May 20, popular forms is today. One pervasive way in which high culture 2011) The poem was put to music in 1983 by is made accessible through popular forms is how the popular rock and folk artist Shalom Hanoch, how Hebrew Hebrew literature, whether from classical Biblical with a haunting slow melody that draws out verses or that of modern serious poetry, is put to the sense of human aloneness and yearning. literature, whether music by popular artists and enjoyed throughout In that same 2011 interview, Zach commented Israeli society. that when Hanoch fi rst recorded the song, every from classical In 1982, Natan Zach, the acclaimed poet time Zach heard it on the radio he feared it was Biblical verses or and scholar of Hebrew poetry, published the in order to announce another casualty of war. poem “For The Human Being is a Tree of In other words, his underlying message is just that of modern the Field.” It takes its opening phrase from as we should take precautions to save trees Deuteronomy 20:19, a Biblical passage which in time of war, so should we take great pains serious poetry, is mandates the preservation of fruit trees while to save human life. All of this is done with an put to music by laying siege to a city in a time of war, specifi - intimate sense of the shifting meaning of ancient cally because fruit trees are not human beings language in its contemporary use. The shift and popular artists and who can threaten one’s army. In the Bible, “Ki play on a classical Hebrew source in a contem- HaAdam Etz ha Sadeh” is a rhetorical question, porary, high-level poem of subtle protest was enjoyed throughout with the Hebrew word “ki” used interrogatively. not limited to the discussions of academics and In Zach’s poem, the Biblical concern for fruit esoteric poetry journals but was turned into a Israeli society. trees over the lives of the enemy population pop song and broadcast on the radio, reaching is turned around completely, and Zach uses the widest arena of popular culture. the language of the Bible to emphasize the Likewise, musical artists of the Yishuv aspirations and yearnings of every person using during the pre-state period often put Biblical Rabbi David Gedzelman is President and CEO of The Steinhardt the word “ki” at the beginning of the phrase verses to music outside of their contexts in ways Foundation for Jewish Life. to mean “because” or “for” in the affi rmative that gave secular meaning to language which

SUMMER 2016 7 language This phenomenon in for music to take it in fl ight. The cadence, wide range of cultures can be celebrated in rhythm and rhyme of many contemporary an Israel that no longer feels the need to Israeli art and Hebrew poets still lend themselves to be homogenous. On his debut album, tra- culture comes at a music in ways that contemporary Ameri- ditional sources and concepts are treated can poetry with its insistence on defying throughout. Of special note is the love time of new the repetition of form and meter does not. song “Hinech Yafah,” which incorporates openness in Israeli And consequently, the work of those poets phrases from the Biblical Song of Songs who earn the respect and consideration of into lyrics phrased in colloquial, contem- secular society over their fi eld in Israel is known and accessed porary Hebrew in interesting ways. Unlike the past decade to on a popular scale in ways that don’t hap- the case with various Land of Israel songs pen in the US. And with that, a corpus of from earlier decades which took whole reclaiming elements literature that purposely mines traditional passages from the Song of Songs language and sources while restructuring and set them to music, Raichel is cutting of Jewish spirituality, those sources in contemporary language and pasting where he wants to in an effort religion and life. and perspective moves popular culture in to say that he can take from the tradition authentic ways. on his own terms and feel comfortable In the past 20 years or so, various in a contemporary idiom. His second was decidedly theological in its original contemporary Israeli musical artists have Album, Mi’ma’amakim, released in 2005, context. The well known “Mayim, Mayim” introduced traditional cultural elements plays with the language of Psalm 130 in song and dance was created in 1937 by into their music in new ways that leave its title song, using a traditional Hebrew choreographer Else Dublin and composer intact much more of the fabric of authen- expression of calling out to God but in Emanuel Pugashov Amiran to celebrate tic traditional forms without necessarily order to speak of a romantic relationship. the discovery of water on Kibbutz Na’an completely reconstructing them as their Again, Raichel does this while forging new after a seven-year search. It is thought of as predecessors may have done. A forerunner possibilities of Hebrew phraseology, con- the fi rst Hebrew folk dance created by the of this came as early as 1989, when Ehud tributing to the language’s fl exibility. The secular pioneer culture in Eretz Yisrael. It Banai included references to traditional album is sprinkled with Hebrew, Amharic, celebrates the ingenuity and capacities of Jewish religious life on his Karov album. Arabic, Zulu, Hindi and Yemenite Hebrew. the young Halutzim (pioneers) to conquer Remembering his grandfather’s house, What Raichel continues to do through his the desert, make it bloom and to celebrate the holy books on its shelves and the latest album, At the Edge of the Beginning, their accomplishments with great joy. The traditional holiday songs he would hear at released in early 2016, is to celebrate a lyrics are from Isaiah 12:3, “And you shall his table, he fuses a contemporary sound range of traditions and cultures but fi rmly draw forth water with joy from the springs with the traditional melody for “Asader in an overall Hebrew context. He doesn’t of salvation.” The song decidedly leaves out Li Seudata,” not just any Shabbat song bracket classical sources and treat them the preceding verse 12:2, “Behold, God is but a hymn of deep mystical meaning separately from his overall work but cuts my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; attributed to Rabbi Yitzchak Luria and them down to the pieces he can use and for God is my strength and song and has written for that matter in Aramaic. At the fuses them into a new Israeli contempo- become for me salvation,” chanted together time this was rather novel and would have rary culture. with the third verse every Saturday night been somewhat threatening to the Israeli This phenomenon in Israeli art and as part of the traditional Havdallah service. secular music scene if not for Banai’s cred- culture comes at a time of new openness The Halutzim knew what they were doing ibility in that scene and personal qualities in Israeli secular society over the past as they reconstructed the very notion of of humility and warmth that had made decade to reclaiming elements of Jewish salvation, putting it fi rmly in the hands of him quite beloved. Banai was introduc- spirituality, religion and life. During this the human, restructuring the refrain of the ing third-generation secularists to the period, a range of “Secular Yeshivot” have verse to emphasize water and joy, repeat- traditional forms their grandparents had opened. Young Israelis have evidenced all ing the word mayim (water) over and over known well but had transformed and kinds of interest in expressing themselves again as the dancers narrow their circle secularized through the very processes I’ve through religious explorations on their coming together in a hand clap to un- tried to quickly outline above. He was do- own secular terms that would have been derscore their success together in fi nding ing this in the medium of popular culture, unthinkable 30 years ago. The informal water and joy. And so the Hebrew word, ye- a classic Israeli rock album. Hitchadshut (“renewal,” not be confused shuah, salvation, got redefi ned in a visceral By the time Idan Raichel appeared on with the American Jewish Renewal) way through a popular cultural expression the music scene in 2002, Israeli culture movement has been growing and it fi nds that turned the Biblical source on its head was ready for a new formula of using openness to religious forms on a popu- but still kept the Biblical reference as an traditional forms in the context of con- lar footing where there was hostility in important cultural component nonethe- temporary expression. And those tradi- previous times. This exploration fi nds less. In this way, language and meaning tional forms were not only what would be resonance in forms of popular culture are changed but the ancient roots are not familiar to those knowledgeable of Biblical perhaps because there has always been expunged. and Rabbinic sources. Traditional Ethio- an Israeli inclination to treat the seri- In the ensuing decades, whether it pian elements, Yemenite sources and other ous questions embodied in high cultural was Yehudit Ravitz putting Leah Goldberg traditions are fused with Middle Eastern expressions in the arena of broad popular poems to music or Yoni Rechter and Arik and contemporary rock sounds in interest- forms with an enthusiasm for playing with Einstein doing the same for the poems of ing new ways that celebrate a range of the Hebrew language which ends up being Avraham Halfi , it would seem that Modern authentic expressions, sending a message the constant barometer of Israeli cultural Hebrew poetry was often written waiting that on the platform of Hebrew music a development and change. ■

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