“My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding places on the mountainside, show me your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.” (Song of Songs)

 

Ask about the heart of Jerusalem

Ask how it feels –

Stones in the heart of Jerusalem

The busy marketplace

 

It is enveloped in lies and injustice

At the foot of the work of the wall

However through the veil one sees

Our city naked

 

It does not pursue justice

It does not want peace

Because there is no peace without justice

• Only why have we come here?

• Did we dream a dream?

• Will you awaken today?’

 

My dove is again in the clefts of the rock

The hawk is rustling above

And in the hiding places of the rock

The cunningness opens

 

This – the lands of the sea behind us

We have desired them

This – the lands surrounding us

We have sung to them

 

This – that same convoy on the road

Facing the sea

The king follows

Covered with blood

Desert, his soul – also,

They are all upon us

 

How does Jerusalem beautify itself

And everyone dances –

Participates and surely wears away

Clothed in droves

 

Ask the debates of its ministers

Neither tall nor lofty

Only a match is missing in its courtyards

And the entire courtyard is busy

 

And we have already been in the oven

Now we are in the frying pan

Pumping on hired respect

• Exploding a little

• Almost burning

• Passing through fire slowly

 

Why have you been dispatched so vigorously

To scratch with the knife?

Enough already let the knife also rest –

Yes, leave the knife alone

 

The seventh fallow year according to law you know how to do

When you run to take more and more lands?

Possibly by fraud, with a concern of theft, under darkness

With the government’s immunity? Is this redemption? Is this honour?

Like a thief in the Judean resistance?

And to whom will you sell your “booty” during the seventh fallow year

Or perhaps you will become Muslim or Christian for the year?

And who will you play dumb with seventh year after seventh year

With more land under you captured in praise?

Who does not like it? You are taking land –

Redemption you are not giving, or perhaps your fingers

Which are very very very very very tight

Are trained to loosen? Trained to release?

Trained to let go?

 

It is from mother mother earth

Yes mother earth

It is from mother mother earth

• My land!

• Until my death!

My land

 

Don’t awaken and don’t wake up

Hatred which is not desired

Just leave it and they will not return

Neither rabbi nor minister nor prayer leader

 

Someone will still awaken

Awaken from his dream;

We will be forgotten and denounced

We will drown in the abyss

 

If only I had seen your face

Listened to your voice

Truth and justice at your gates

• How beautiful is your face!

• How lovely is your voice

• Grace in the eyes of your friend!

 

In the song there are references to many verses and legends. Pay heed to Meir Ariel’s version from the fourth stanza (My dove is again in the clefts of the rock) and the following legend from Mekhilta from the Beshalach Torah portion, 2:13:

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"Why were the Children of Israel similar (on the sea) to the dove that fled from the hawk and entered the crevices of the rock, and there was a snake nesting there. If it enters from the front – the snake will rage, and if it comes out – the hawk is standing outside. What did it do? Firstly it screamed and beat its wings so that the dovecote owner would hear and come to save it. So too were the Children of Israel similar to the sea – they could not descend to the sea, it had still not opened for them; they could not turn back, because Pharaoh had already sacrificed; they immediately started to pray; “And the Children of Israel shall call to the Lord”."