Beginning 2024 With a Prayer

The Homeland Concert: Well, here we go again. It's a new civil year. Now, in January, we enter a new dimension - with hope, with determination, and with a prayer. Lights of Kabbalah reminds us:

The past is an interpretation. The future is an illusion. 

The world does not move through time as if it were a straight line, proceeding from the past to the future. Instead time moves through and within us, in endless spirals. 

Eternity does not mean infinite time, but simply timelessness. If you want to experience eternal illumination, put the past and the future out of your mind and remain within the present moment.

Neither a kabbalist nor a philosopher, Abq Jew does not, at present, wish to experience eternal illumination. But back in December, there was the Homeland Concert. Jessica Steinberg of The Times of Israel tells us:

1,000 musicians in Caesarea call to bring hostages home

Local producer creates show combining Ehud Manor lyrics with national anthem, to warm ‘frozen hearts’ after horrific events of October 7

When producer Talya Yarom thought about a giant production of musicians playing and singing for the hostages held captive in Gaza, she kept thinking about bringing 1,000 musicians and singers together.

“One thousand sounds good,” said Yarom. 

“It’s a good place to get to, and 1,000 musicians in Caesarea, which to me is a symbol of the beautiful Israel.”

On December 18, Yarom brought together 1,000 musicians, old and young, rockers and classical players, amateurs and professionals, to the Caesarea amphitheater for a day of recording and filming.

The result is “Homeland Concert,” with a medley of lyrics from Ehud Manor’s classic song, “Home” and part of “Hatikva,” Israel’s national anthem ....

“The concept was a national project,” said Yarom. 

“The nation is crying to the world, ‘Bring Them Home,'” she said, referring to the rallying cry that has echoed nationwide over efforts to bring the hostages back home to Israel.

The lyrics to the Hebrew song include:

Home, home,
It’s time to return,
From hills and foreign fields
The day is fading and there’s no sign.

When Yarom put out a call on social media for musicians, nearly 2,000 people signed up, surpassing the level of interest she had hoped to generate.

On December 18, the 1,000 musicians she ended up working with gathered at Caesarea for the first time, playing under conductor Mark Wolloch and recording a video of the performance during that one, long day.

“It was amazing,” said Yarom, “especially at the end when families of the hostages joined us to sing. They moved us very much.”

 

This week, Abq Jew also marked the 30th yahrzeit

of his mother, Roselyn Lillian (Wise) Yellin,
of blessed memory, who died on January 2 1994,
at the age of 66 years and 21 days.

Abq Jew dedicates the Homeland Concert to her memory.
And - here's to you, too, Dad!