The point of today’s post is the video, below, of Israel’s national basketball team, “forced” to attend a “classical music concert” before departing for an international competition. Some people I know watch the players and thought that they were kind of into the music. I read it as their being polite.
In any event, to understand the event in the video, we first need to know about this song, Al Tira Yisrael, “Do not fear, Israel.” It’s hugely popular in Israel (the clip above is from an IDF Rabbinate video), and there are countless performances online (just copy and search for אל תירא ישראל). The song describes the escape of the biblical Jacob from Esau and his marriages to Leah and Rachel. Its chorus, which strengthens Jacob’s spirit, contains the words “Fear not, Israel [DG-which is Jacob’s other biblical name], fear not, for you are indeed a lion’s whelp, and if a lion roars, who will not fear?”
The song, meant to highlight the Mizrachi tradition in Israeli music, was released in the early 1970’s, and won third prize at the Eastern Music Festival of Song in 1971. The original plan had been for it to be performed at the Festival by Yigal Bashan, who would go on to become a very successful singer, songwriter and actor, but Bashan, though about to be discharged from the army, didn’t get IDF permission to attend, so the song was performed instead by Moshe Hillel, another hugely popular singer and writer.
Like almost everything in Israel, the song went through a period of being politicized, when in 2000 as a symbol of support for Aryeh Deri [DG: “aryeh” is Hebrew for “lion”], to bolster Deri’s spirits as he was about to enter prison for corruption and later, as a song of support as he continued his political career (he’s a member of the current government).
But“do not fear, Israel” has long since lost its biblical connotations and even its political resonance among most of those who sing it, and is, instead, seen as a song to bolster the spirits of the nation.
Here are the words and transliteration of the refrain, as seen on the Zemirot Database. The words to the entire song can be found on this page of the National Library of Israel website.
With some familiarity with the song now in hand, it’s more fun to watch this gathering of the Israeli National Basketball Team on the eve of their leaving to compete in Eurobasket, the European Championship, and their reactions to what they’d thought was going to be a classical music concert, but was, of course, a flash mob:
May the new year, 5786, be remembered mostly for moments like this, and most importantly, for the speedy return of the hostages, for whom today is their 717th day of horrific captivity.
With prayers for a much, much better year ahead …
