Rachel the poetess
To say that Jews are supportive of Israel and that some are nationalistic is commonplace. But, it doesn't go anywhere near the true feelings of love that many of us have for our Land.
How many of those who demonstrate against Israel's "right to exist" know anything, know about for example Rachel Bluwstein, known as Rachel the poetess (Rachel hamishoreret), one of the first poets in the renascent Hebrew language.
Rachel was born in 1890 in Russia, the grand-daughter of the Chief Rabbi of Kiev. At the age of 19 she went on a tour intending to go to Europe, but came first to what was then the Turkish province of South Syria, but to her was Eretz Yisrael. She immediately fell in love with the under-developed, rural country and spent the rest of her life here.
She had written poetry in Russian, but here wrote in Hebrew, which was quite novel at the time and she wrote beautiful, simple, evocative, lyrical poetry which is still widely read. For most of her early stay she lived at Kibbutz Kinneret on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.. She did not marry and had no children, but she wrote some beautiful love songs, and one of her lovers was Zalman Rubashov, who later became as Zalman Shazar the third President of the State of Israel.
On a trip to France in 1913, due to WWI she could not return to Eretz Yisrael and returned to Russia instead until after the war. But she contracted TB there and after her return in 1919 was unable to work. Eventually she retired to a sanatorium near Tel Aviv and lived there writing poetry until her death in 1931 at the age of 40. Apart from the lyrical beauty of her verse, expressing regret, solitude and longing, she wrote poems that have become classical Hebrew songs, such as the immortal "Perhaps" or "Kinneret sheli" (my Kinneret).
Perhaps (1927)
Perhaps all this never was,
Perhaps I never rose at dawn to till
The garden by the sweat of my brow?
Nor even on long burning harvest days
Atop a sheaf-laden cart
Raised my voice in song?
Never purified myself in the quiet blue and innocence
Of my Kinneret,
Oh Kinneret,
did you truly exist?
Or were you only a dream?
For a really nice performance on You-Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeBesChGIBk
To those who argue the pros and cons of the Israeli-Arab conflict in purely political or moral terms, you are missing a lot. Listen to the performance and think again, there is so much you don't understand.
(This article was inspired by the moving performance of "Perhaps," at our weekly Monday Shearim concert by soprano Maya Gutman, an immigrant from Russia).
How many of those who demonstrate against Israel's "right to exist" know anything, know about for example Rachel Bluwstein, known as Rachel the poetess (Rachel hamishoreret), one of the first poets in the renascent Hebrew language.
Rachel was born in 1890 in Russia, the grand-daughter of the Chief Rabbi of Kiev. At the age of 19 she went on a tour intending to go to Europe, but came first to what was then the Turkish province of South Syria, but to her was Eretz Yisrael. She immediately fell in love with the under-developed, rural country and spent the rest of her life here.
She had written poetry in Russian, but here wrote in Hebrew, which was quite novel at the time and she wrote beautiful, simple, evocative, lyrical poetry which is still widely read. For most of her early stay she lived at Kibbutz Kinneret on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.. She did not marry and had no children, but she wrote some beautiful love songs, and one of her lovers was Zalman Rubashov, who later became as Zalman Shazar the third President of the State of Israel.
On a trip to France in 1913, due to WWI she could not return to Eretz Yisrael and returned to Russia instead until after the war. But she contracted TB there and after her return in 1919 was unable to work. Eventually she retired to a sanatorium near Tel Aviv and lived there writing poetry until her death in 1931 at the age of 40. Apart from the lyrical beauty of her verse, expressing regret, solitude and longing, she wrote poems that have become classical Hebrew songs, such as the immortal "Perhaps" or "Kinneret sheli" (my Kinneret).
Perhaps (1927)
Perhaps all this never was,
Perhaps I never rose at dawn to till
The garden by the sweat of my brow?
Nor even on long burning harvest days
Atop a sheaf-laden cart
Raised my voice in song?
Never purified myself in the quiet blue and innocence
Of my Kinneret,
Oh Kinneret,
did you truly exist?
Or were you only a dream?
For a really nice performance on You-Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeBesChGIBk
To those who argue the pros and cons of the Israeli-Arab conflict in purely political or moral terms, you are missing a lot. Listen to the performance and think again, there is so much you don't understand.
(This article was inspired by the moving performance of "Perhaps," at our weekly Monday Shearim concert by soprano Maya Gutman, an immigrant from Russia).
posted by Jack Cohen at 6:46 PM
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