This afternoon at a pre Shabbat program at a local nursing home I was joined by several residents and their caregivers or family members.
One of the gentlemen has a very distinguished academic background and has written hundreds of academic papers and delivered keynote lectures around the world. Yet unfortunately dementia has caught up with him, and he is unable to talk coherently and switches between the seven languages that he speaks nearly every other word. Yet as I have seen so many times and in so many settings, music and specifically emotional and spiritual music, has a deep and profound effect and as it touches the heartstrings of the heart and the deepest recesses of the mind.
I watched the man’s lips along with his facial reactions and expressions, as did his wife, as we went from singing Shalom Aleichem to Hinei Mah Tov and then to Hava Nagila. First, he started humming along, then he started singing the actual words, and soon enough he was doing the little drumbeat on the table along with me. A smile lit up his face, as his heart recognized these deep and old melodies that run deep in his soul, and almost seemed to celebrate the fact that yes, he is still here and able to express the innermost part of who he is.
This gentleman was a child during the Second World War as was his wife and experienced some of the horrors of the Nazi’s during those terrible years of the Holocaust. Eventually he emigrated to Palestine after the war right before the founding of the State of Israel hoping to finally settle in peace and escape persecution.
Then in 1967 while working on his academic studies in the Technion Institute in Haifa, he was called up to the reserves to help defend Israel’s northern front and the villages and towns that were under tremendous artillery fire from the Syrian controlled Golan Heights. Together with many colleagues he fought his way up the hills and dislodged those who were shelling the towns and villages below the mountain.
Yet in those terrible battles even though they succeeded in their mission, he saw some of his closest friends fall, some never to return.
His wife told me that he was never the same person after that, and this is despite his tremendous academic achievements that have continued throughout his life. For deep down he carries a lot of pain and trauma from those experiences which have continued to haunt him for so many years.
She asked me if I could perhaps sing Jerusalem of Gold for him, the popular song by Naomi Shemer from 1967, which expressed so powerfully the emotions and longing of those years to be able to pray once again in Jerusalem and for the city to not be alone and desolate.
I found the lyrics and began to sing, and sure enough, his face lit up, and a memory of fifty five years ago came alive on his face.
The mountain air is clear as wine
And the scent of pines around
Is carried on the breeze of twilight,
With bells resounding.
While the trees and stones softly slumber,
The city is caught in a dream
So solitary lies the city,
And at its heart a wall.
Oh, Jerusalem of gold,
and of light and of bronze,
I am the violin for all your songs.
And so we kept going in the beautiful melodic Hebrew of this song as his face was alight with a deep joy and memory that certainly transported him back 55 years to the hills of Northern Israel and perhaps even to his childhood in Europe
Indeed as the song concludes “If I forget thee, golden city, Jerusalem of gold” this gentleman had been through so much but he had not forgotten.
The power of meaningful music and melodies and what we allow to run through our veins and nurture our hearts and souls, is more powerful and enduring that you can truly imagine….
Indeed in this week’s portion Moses was instructed by G-d to make two silver trumpets which were to be used to call together the people for various occasions, celebrations and events. The sound of the trumpets which produced a musical sound which was different than the sound of the Shofar which was a simple blast, represented the emotion of love and warmth, which it would help elicit in the people
Dedicated to the gentleman and his dedicated wife who is always at his side. May they both be blessed with good health.
Shabbat Shalom & Good Shabbos
Yisroel