Last night Mrs. Arbel and I were on a train back home from a medical appointment. At 19:59, while the train was stopped a couple of stations before ours, came a PA announcement (my translation):
“At 20:00, the memorial siren will sound, and millions of people around Israel will stand up for a minute of silence in remembrance of those of us who fell on the battlefield and at the hands of terrorists. The train will resume its journey at the end of the siren.”Tomorrow night will be our 75th Independence Day, which we mark not on 14 May (the secular date on which in 1948 the Independence Scroll was read out) but on its Hebrew date, the 5th of Iyar (hey be-Iyar in Hebrew). Uniquely among countries, we mark Memorial Day or Remembrance Day (Hebrew: yom ha-zikaron) the day before: to honor those of us who paid the ultimate price to allow us “to be a free people in our own country” (lihyot am chofshi be’artzeinu, in the words of our national anthem HaTikva/The Hope).
I give you today once again Natan Alterman’s poem, about them being the “Magash ha-Kesef” (literally: the silver salver, or the silver serving platter) on which our independence was served.
| And the land grows still, the red eye of the sky slowly dimming over smoking frontiers As the nation arises, torn at heart but breathing, To receive its miracle, the only miracle As the ceremony draws near, it will rise, Dressed in battle gear, dirty, shoes heavy with grime, Full of endless fatigue and unrested, Then a nation in tears and amazement |
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Spin, strangeness, and charm 