Songs of conclusion as a new year begins

Ah gutten vinter,” my father wished me as I departed after Simchat Torah, the last of the holidays. Back in the day, that was the traditional greeting with which one signed off the High Holiday season. The season that sometimes feels like time suspended is over, winter now at the doorstep.

“Acharei ha-chagim” (“after the holidays”) has arrived. Life is starting anew. The year has begun in earnest. A few other conclusion-like signatures that accompany me this time of year are songs from the late Israeli songwriter, Naomi Shemer.

Everyone knows her enduring “Jerusalem of Gold,” “Let it Be,” and a few of her other famous songs that defined the Israeli generations before me, as well as my own.

Like a modern day prophet, Naomi Shemer had an eerie psychic ability to intuit the emotions of historic moments the Jewish people were facing and, almost like a prayer, to compose songs so piercing and enduring that they became like anthems for modern day historic events.

The almost mythical story of how “Jerusalem of Gold” was written, intertwined with the events of the Six Day War, is breathtaking. To this day, the moment I hear the plucking of the guitar strings to this melody, it stills my heart.

Some of Shemer’s lesser known songs that are equally beloved are “Ba-Shana ha-Ba’ah” (“In The Next Year”), capturing the longing of the Jewish people for better days; “Anashim Tovim” (“Good People”), about the ordinary acts of kindness one encounters along the way of life; “Churshat ha-Eucalyptus” (“The Eucalyptus Meadow”), a subtle war song, and so many more.

A couple of others that I think of this time of year are “Al ha-Devash ve-al ha-Oketz” (“Of the Honey and the Sting”) and “Asif” (“Harvest”).

In Israel, oftentimes the lyrics to Shemer’s “Asif” can be found artistically rendered hanging in a sukkah. Unlike in the U.S., where mostly it’s a thing of the past, campfire-style singing, known in Israel as kumzits or erev shira, is still alive and well. Often the melancholy melody of “Asif” is heard at these autumn evening gatherings.

 “Asif” is related to the word sof, which means end. In fact, that is how the Torah gently describes the death of Aaron the High Priest. Va-ye’asef el amav, and he was gathered unto his people.

Shemer plays with the word asif, as in gather, and turns it into a more abstract request or suggestion of sorts, that sums up the season.

“Esof et ha-ma’asim, et ha-milim ve-ha-otot, kmo yevol bracha, kaved mi-s’et (Gather the deeds, the words and the symbols, like a blessed harvest, too heavy to carry) … esof et hapricha, asher gamla la-zichronot (gather the blossoms that ripened into memories) … ve-ein yoter givol cholem al shibboloto, ve-ein yoter nidrei ve-esarei, rak havtachat ha-ruach ki ha-geshem be-ito, od yechonen et afara be-tom Tishrei (there is no more stem dreaming about yielding its fruit, there are no more Kol Nidre oaths, only the wind’s promise that the rain will in time rebuild the dust at the end of Tishrei).”

 “Of the Honey and the (Bee) Sting” evokes the amber honey with which we literally and tangibly kicked off the season, as we dipped our apples and sweetened our challah. But more than that, like asif, it somehow captures the bittersweet of the season and especially its ending.

The truth is, it’s such an intense season. Between the emotional and spiritual effort, the ebb and flow of the Days of Awe, along with the logistics of so much cooking and hosting, of course it’s only natural that there is also a collective sigh of relief that it’s over, that life is back to its daily routines.

Yet there is still one more song of Naomi Shemer that ricochets through my mind: “Hachagiga Nigmeret” (“The Celebration Has Come To a Conclusion”).

It’s not only the conclusion of this season that makes me think of this particular song, although, again, the melancholy melody has that tinge of conclusion.

The song starts off “Ve-lifamim (and sometimes) hachagiga Nigmeret (the time of celebration passes) kibbuy orot (the lights are dimmed); ha-chatsotsra omeret, shalom la-kinorot (the trumpet bids farewell to the violins); ashmoret tichona nosheket la-shlishit (the last watch of night kisses the third); lakum machar bakoker, u’lehatchil … mi-bereishit (to wake up tomorrow in the morning …  and begin another day anew).”

The word used to describe the genesis of the day is Bereishit, Genesis, as in the name of the first book of the Torah that we begin anew at this time.

So aside from the conclusion of the celebration that the song encapsulates, it speaks of new beginnings, specifically in the Jewish biblical language, mi-bereishit, the new Torah reading cycle that we now begin.

That said, the minimalist and without much fanfare “ah gutten vinter” says it all. So, a gutten vinter, dear reader. Ah gutten vinter.

Copyright 2016 Intermountain Jewish News