Waiting for Elijah in Jerusalem (3-Minute Music Video)
My daughter, Hallel, just wrote a school report about this song, so this is the tune that I was humming yesterday, on Jerusalem day. This is one of my all-time favorite Israeli songs, about various residents of Jerusalem who spend their lives yearning for the arrival of Elijah and the rebuilding of the Temple. There is the carpenter who dreams that he will prepare Elijah a throne, the shoemaker who dreams that he will make Elijah a pair of shoes, and a builder who is yearning to bring Elijah the cornerstone for the Beit Hamikdash. I have always loved this song, but today it moves me even more after so many months spent coping with the crisis in my neighborhood and, like the characters in the song, desperately yearning for a Jerusalem that is no longer as broken as it is today. (English translation below)
ON HIS PALMS HE WILL BRING
(Translation from HebrewSongs.com)
On our narrow street
there lives a strange carpenter.
He sits in his hut
and doesn’t do a thing.
No one comes to buy,
and no one comes to visit,
and it’s been two years
since he’s done any carpentry.
And he carries but one dream in his heart
to build a throne for Elijah who will come,
on the palms of his hands he will bring it,
to Elijah the Prophet.
CHORUS
And he sits and waits for him
for years he’s been dreaming he will be worthy
he guards his secret and awaits him
When will the day come?
On our narrow street
there lives a strange shoemaker.
he sits in his hut
and doesn’t do a thing.
His empty shelves
are covered with dust.
For two years has his awl
has been sitting in a sack.
And he dreams that he’d make a pair of shoes
to be worn on the feet of the Herald,
on the palms of his hands he will carry them,
To Elijah the Prophet.
Chorus
In Jerusalem there is
a man entirely not young,
he built many houses
in all corners of the city.
He knows each alley,
every street and neighborhood,
He builds the city
for seventy years already.
And he dreams that just as he built the city
he will lay the cornerstone of the Holy Temple.
On the palms of his hands he will bring it
to Elijah the Prophet.
Chorus
Image courtesy of Flickr.com user Zeeweez
I have always enjoyed this song. Why were the captions in Russian? Who are the children singing and where are they from, I get the feeling that they are in Russia.
The video was made in Raanana in 1994. Look at all those beautiful, precious Israeli children!