Professor David Peimer
Jerusalem in Poetry and Myth
Professor David Peimer - Jerusalem in Poetry and Myth
- So today you’re going to dive into looking at this remarkable, unique, fascinating city, Jerusalem in poetry and song, and myth, and also a little bit of the history, and influences in the city as well, ‘cause obviously that gives a context. Going to look at some of the far better known songs, or poems about it. Obviously Naomi Shemer, Meir Ariel, and couple of other more contemporary groups who’ve been singing about Jerusalem and Yehuda Amichai, and a couple of other poets and their pieces. So going to look at some of the poetry and those songs, try and get to grips with what is it that about the city that is an absolute magnet in the global, especially western global imagination for everybody. And what draws us right in. And obviously from a Jewish perspective, and including the other two main religions of monotheism that the city inspires. So just to take a little trip first through a little bit of the past in terms of the origin, I guess a bit of the meaning and the mystique of Jerusalem. We know the great old lines as we go way back, which has informed so much of the passionate, and imaginative response to the city. “If I forget the O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget the skill. Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth. If I forget the O Jerusalem, punish me, do whatever. I cannot forget. Why? The centre of my religion, the centre of my belief, the centre of God.” Home for God, home for Judaism, home for Christianity. And third most important place in terms of Islam. But it’s the sense of this is the centre of the universe, because it is of course the religious and spiritual centre, certainly for everybody, Jewish and Christian.
So the first settlement, this is a bit sketchy in terms of archaeological evidence, but trying to piece the bits of the puzzle together. The early bronze age around about three, and a half thousand years BC, BCE, three and a half thousand, maybe, could be 4,000 years, that’s a hell of a long time ago. First evidence that we can find of human dwellings, I guess would’ve been nomadic tribes, small little, what we’d call today, huts, homes, houses in the city. A couple of things, a couple of little facts and figures, which are, I think interesting, Jerusalem, we reckon had this first settlement all that time ago. And I would say nomadic shepherds really would probably be the phrase. And the first time we discovered the word with a different spelling, Yerushalem, which are on ancient Egyptian tablets, which we think are, date back to about the fourth millennium BCE, Jerusalem as a city has been destroyed often a couple of times at least that we know of. Besieged at least 23 times, captured and recaptured 44 times at least, attacked 52 times at least. So a city undergoing massive change from a religious, spiritual, cultural, military, national identity perspective in so many ways, part of what makes it such an extraordinary rich history, and a set of cultures that have come out of it. And of course, located right there in the Middle East between Africa and Asia and Europe, as we all know only too well. We go on to the next slide, please.
So this, I thought I’d start having taken you back into ancient times. Go right into modern times in the so-called Postmodern Way. This is an astronaut’s view of Jerusalem. Fascinating. We can zoom right up and we can look, imagine the past. Just fascinating to imagine astronaut right up, so high up in the heavens looking down. Okay, we can go on to the next slide, please. This is the first most ancient piece of evidence of the word Jerusalem on a piece, an ancient piece of Egyptian papyrus. We know, of course, David conquered Jerusalem from the Jebusites, from what we get from the Bible, and other little bits of writing. And he establishes it as the capital, as we all know it only too well. And it’s essentially the centre of the Jewish state, the Jewish nation. It’s David that makes it the centre. And then of course, his son Solomon builds the first temple and so on. So from Judges we read, “And the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites, they inhabited Jerusalem, but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Bethlehem in Jerusalem unto this day.” So David is letting the Jebusites, the originals, the inhabitants of his time, stay there and participate in whatever way, live, not slaughter. But obviously is King David, is David that becomes the central focus for the founding of the city, and beyond. This is the earliest Hebrew writing of the word Jerusalem on this piece of papyrus. We reckon it’s about dated around about the seventh century BCE, and what it means broadly in English, if we can, there’s conflict of what exactly it means.
But broadly, “Yahweh is the God of Judah, God of Jerusalem.” And that’s more or less what is in the inscription on this piece of papyrus dating back. It’s the first hard evidence archaeologically of the city, and the name Jerusalem. Josephus, of course, we all know he was the Jewish scribe who went and got out of the city of Jerusalem during the siege by Vespasian, and the Roman army in around 69 and 70 after Christ. And he then becomes one of the main Jewish scribes, Vespasian becomes the emperor of Rome, and allows him to go back to Rome with him, because Josephus prophesize that Vespasian, just an ordinary Roman general at the time, who conquers Jerusalem, that he will go back and become the emperor. And he does become the emperor. And then his son, Titus, the emperor as well. Anyway, so Josephus is writing, and interesting what Josephus wrote, all those, this is around about 70 or possibly early seventies after Christ, is that the, and I’m quoting, “The city was thoroughly.” This is after Vespasian and Titus have utterly destroyed it, and burnt it to the ground. So, “The city was thoroughly raised to the ground that nothing was left that could ever persuade visitors. It had once been a place of habitation.” That’s Josephus writing nearly 2000 years ago that nothing was left that could ever persuade visitors. So we can imagine the sheer level of complete destruction by the superpower Rome of the times that Vespasian, the Roman general visited. They wanted to completely destroy this upstart, stubborn, rebellious, small group of Jews in this, I reckon, pretty small, relatively minor or relatively insignificant province for the huge Roman empire, the superpower. But they were furious and they wanted to make an example obviously.
Then of course, after the Bar Kokhba revolt in the 130s after Christ, Emperor Hadrian decides to change the name of Judea as a province of Rome to Syria Palestina, which is where of course, we get the reference today. Then comes the first crusade, 1099, where the crusaders come, and they massacre most of the Jewish and Muslim inhabitants, and they set up the first real version of their Christian city, 1099. So where else in the Bible is it mentioned, Jerusalem? Well, it’s mentioned, the first mention is in Joshua, where the first mention of Jerusalem, and then of course jumping around a little bit, because Jerusalem mentioned about 800 times in the Bible. But in Psalm 132, “The Lord has chosen Jerusalem, and will dwell there forever.” And that I think is one of the most crucial Psalms about Jerusalem. “The Lord has chosen Jerusalem, and will dwell there forever.” In other words, this is God’s home. This is the home of God, this is what God has chosen. So it’s absolutely central to Judaism, to the monotheistic religions, especially Judaism and Christianity. It takes on a whole further meaning beyond David setting it up as the capital city militarily, national identity for the Jewish nation of the times. Okay, if we go on the next slide, please. Obviously we all know the Wailing Wall, Western Wall. I would just like to mention here, and everybody I’m sure who has been there, the sheer scale of the wall. We’ve got to remember this is built so long ago, and the sheer scale of this size, I mean, all they would’ve had is hands, and human labour, ropes, pulleys, et cetera. But human labour and building this massive temple. So what does that mean for us? The temple is the site of the city of God, and a centre for Judaism.
And it’s also, it’s hard if we try and imagine people living in those times, hard to imagine their sense of national identity, and religious identity as Jews without the temple, got to have the temple at the centre, the Greeks and the Acropolis, and the Romans, etc. So this is the absolute, statues for Jupiter and others, their powerful gods. But this is the centre, and it needs a physical temple, a structure. So what happens after 70, after Christ with Vespasian, and Titus’s devastation and conquest of Jerusalem, that’s when it comes up where the idea of how you can have a central, you can still have a national identity for a people who are in massive dispersal, and in exile all over, have to build temples, or make of their own wherever they can be, which I’ve spoken about before. But it’s a massive shift philosophically, and in religious thinking that the original can be transplanted elsewhere, or the idea of the original in terms of synagogues or temples. Okay, in 1993, archaeologists led by Avraham Biran excavating in the Northern Galilee, they found basalt rock in Aramaic. And on it was an inscription, which scholars reckoned was from about the ninth century, BCE, about a century after David. So this is about 3000 years ago, which says Bait David, which of course we know, House of David, book of Samuels, “David built around from the miler on inward.” In other words, we have evidence that the story is that David conquered the city by ascending, by going through the water shaft into the city. It as echoes of the Trojan horse, of the ancient Greeks going to Troy, and the Trojan horse going inside, and then concrete from inside, and what has become the metaphor, and the myth of the Trojan horse, finding your way to tunnel in with a small group who break out, open up the main gates, and the army comes in, classic Trojan horse idea. And this shaft was uncovered by archaeologists in 1867.
So fascinating reference to the Bible being made evident about Jerusalem. Go to the next slide, please. Thanks, Jess. So we have the obvious ones on the left Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Everyone knows the meaning, The Wailing Wall in the middle, and on the right there Al-Aqsa Mosque. So in a very small area, a couple of, tiny little area of Jerusalem even, we have three of the most powerful, significant and important monotheistic religions of all within such a small, little range, so we have to, we all know that part of the myth is the incredible power in the human imagination where everyone is in the world of this city. It is the centre of, it is the home of God, not just the centre and the centre for these three religions, in a sense. Of course, The Al-Aqsa Mosque is supposedly the third most holy sight in Islam. Okay, we go on to the next slide, please. This is a contemporary artist’s digital imagining of what it might have looked like in the time of Solomon based on scraps of archaeological evidence, and items found and et cetera. On the right is, of course, it’s all it’s imagined, but based on what was found, on the right is the temple of Solomon, imagination, on the right, the city of Jerusalem in Solomon’s time imagined digitally by an artist. And on the top, of course, is the temple. So we get this image, it’s just trying to imagine in the same way we’re trying to imagine the life of these people and the evolution of Jerusalem.
Okay, so just a couple of other quick things before I go onto to Naomi Shemer’s great song Yerushalayim Shel Zahav. Solomon’s temple was, as we all know, destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 BCE under Nebuchadnezzar II. And most of the Jews were taken, some slaughtered, of course, and most taken into captivity in Babylon. 330 BCE, Alexander, the Great conquers Jerusalem. And of course, the great Bar Kokhba Revolt, 135 to 137, against the might of the Roman superpower. Christianity, around 324, 324 after Christ, Constantine, as we all know, Constantine converts Christianity, and makes Christianity the official religion of Rome. Constantine’s mother who was Christian, has a dream. And she goes back to, she actually goes to Jerusalem, and she claims that she has found the site where the cross was. And hence, Constantine begins building the church of the Holy Sepulchre. And because of her vision, her dream, whatever, and the pilgrimage is made by Constantine’s mother, these are very important moments, because they fundamentally change and add on, and shift the constant and unceasing change in the evolution of Jerusalem, the city. Constantine builds a church on the site where his mother says, “This is the site where the cross was.” The Middle Ages, as we all know, I’m sure the Good Friday starts to develop as pilgrims walk the Via Dolorosa, in English, the way of grief. So to reenact the suffering of Christ carrying the cross and so on. Jerusalem is captured by the Islamic forces in 638 CE, they build the dome with the rock, which becomes Al-Aqsa mosque. We all know where Mohammed is supposed to have gone up to heaven, sending the angels and all the rest of them.
Okay, so it is an extraordinary historic, cultural, spiritual, and perhaps most importantly, the power the city exerts over the human imagination globally, obviously the west, but globally, comes from all of this historical constant changing from those tiny, that nomadic bunch, a settlement of a bunch of nomadic shepherds probably a couple of thousand years before the common era. In Exodus, Exodus 15, “You will bring them, and plant them in the mountain of your inheritance, the place, oh Lord, where you have made for your dwelling, the sanctuary.” So Moses prefiguring in the Exodus, prefiguring all of this, “There’s no city on earth that can’t compare.” It is the place, the location that God has chosen from Moses all the way through. But David, of course, is the one who makes it the capital for the Jewish nation, and therefore Jewish identity, crucial, religious and nationality and identity all come together. After David’s death, Solomon builds it, and we get in Chronicles quoting, “Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah.” As we all know. “Where the Lord had appeared to his father, David.” So we get these echoes, these references so many times, which we all know that God has chosen it. Therefore, of course the Jews are going to follow it, and everybody else afterwards, basically it’s God’s home, bottom line.
And of course, Mount Moriah. In Psalm 132, “For the Lord has chosen Zion. He has desired it for his habitation. This is my resting place forever. Here, I will dwell for I have desired it.” So Psalm 32 is a crucial Psalm for me in Judaism, and other religions. “The Lord has chosen Zion. So this is my home.” Says God, therefore it’s got to be the Jewish home, Christian, et cetera, desired it for his habitation, his dwelling, his resting place forever. So the importance we all know, but I think it helps to remind ourselves of these biblical echoes which resonates so powerfully today. Okay, now if we gone to the next slide, please. This is Naomi Shemer. For me, one of the most beautiful voices, obviously to come out of Israel and globally, who, as we all know as we called the First Lady of Israeli song and poetry. She wrote the great song, Yerushalayim Shel Zahav Jerusalem of Gold. She wrote it shortly after the 1967, the Six Day War, sorry, just before it. And as a celebration of Jerusalem. Most of her family perished in the Holocaust. She was in the IDF herself, in the Nahal Brigade as a pianist. And the origin of the song was Teddy Kollek, as we all know, the mayor of Jerusalem at the time, had a song festival and he wanted a song. So she wrote it.
And of course, three weeks after the Six Day War, for the first time in Jewish history for 2000 years, the city of Jerusalem is united. An extraordinary moment in Jewish history of our times, and going back to ancient times to now. Naomi Shemer wrote her songs, she composed and sent many famous songs to music. One of the most famous was her adaptation of the Beatles, Let It Be in 1973. 1995, after the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, she translated Walt Whitman’s, O Captain, My Captain, which was written after the assassination of Lincoln, of course. And she wrote it after the assassination of Rabin. Okay, and we’ll go on to the next slide, please. Now, this is her song, for me, one of the most beautiful songs ever written, not only in terms of Judaism and Jerusalem, but one of the beautiful songs ever. I’m going to play Yerushalayim Shel Zahav. And freeze it there, please, Jess. So, thank you, I’ve listened to the song so many times, and it still sends such shivers, literally down my spine, ever since I was a little kid, really. And the sense of celebration, there is some heroism, there’s lamentation, there’s such a beautiful warmth, there’s such a love for the city, Jerusalem of Gold, Yerushalayim Shel Zahav and such a evocation I think of so many feelings in her voice, in the song, the words, the music, everything. If there was such a phrase as joyful lamentation perhaps that might capture something about her song, and celebration and lamentation together in the song. I have been there quite often, as I’m sure many people have. But it’s this song that brings it, all the memories so back so viscerally. My sister lives there, my niece and all her, and her children, cousins, and as I’m sure many of us have as well. And it goes way back in the collective memory for me personally and I’m sure for many Jewish people everywhere, it takes us in a split second, it takes us right back to our cultural roots, our religious roots, our cultural roots, our sense of identity. It’s an extraordinary achievement of the song.
And it’s Jerusalem of Gold. That’s what it’s about. And it’s not about the Johannesburg’s, pardon me, one of the Tswana names, was it Goli? City of Gold. Because it’s built on all the goldmines, of course. But here it’s a gold of culture, of spirit, of religion, spirituality, of identity, of nationalism, of belonging out of exile, coming and going, exile 2000 years and belonging, exiled before Babylonians and others. And I think she captures all these to and fro feelings in the song. And you can definitely accuse me of being over-interpretive. But one needs to express all the feelings that come out with such a magnificently-made song. So, okay, what’s interesting about it is that she admitted just before her death that she had adapted the melody from a Basque folk melody, obviously from Spain. And also in 1962, a fantastic Spanish guitarist, Paco Ibanez had performed the Basque melody, which was called in English out of the Spanish is called, Joseph the Fool, in Israel in 1962. And she might have gone or heard it somewhere at the time. She acknowledged shortly before her death that the ancient Spanish folk melody, 'cause it is, it’s a very ancient Spanish folk melody, actually helped really influence, or she adapted or modified in terms of the music, obviously not the lyrics. And there’s even some recent evidence that that ancient Spanish folk melody from the Basque area was itself at the origins, perhaps of the Jews of Victoria and mediaeval times, and that the Basque had copied it. But it’s not hard and fast, anyway, as one of my lecturers, one of my professors said many, many years ago, “Originality is just lack of information.” So where’s the origin of the origin of the origin? Doesn’t matter. In the end, all songs, all things, so many things get adapted artistically.
I’m going to play that in a second. As she said, Naomi Shemer, she said, “A world devoid of Jews is like a dead star.” I’ve never forgotten that beautiful image of hers as a poet and singer and musician. “A world devoid of Jews is like a dead star.” In other words, there is something there, there was a dead star, there was light and illumination, and fire and burning and all of that and life. “No Jews, it’s like a dead star.” All this remarkable scintillating cosmic and cultural and spiritual contribution as a dead star. Beautiful image, I think, when one thinks of it, world without devoid of Jews. Okay, I want to play, this is the Basque origin of the song played by the Spanish guitarist, Paco Ibanez. Can you play the next slide, please? If we can freeze it there please, Jess. Thanks. So we can feel that, we can recognise, I don’t want to go into the musical analysis here, but don’t have time, but we can feel some of the elements of the song in the music, in the melody, the structure of the melody, obviously, that, and as she admitted, Naomi Shemer, that influences her song, Yerushalayim Shel Zahav. Something about this also, of the Basque, I think is, there, you sense something of a pride, and militancy, but not a malicious militancy, but a kind of militant pride in the way he’s singing it and the song. And I think she also gets that in parts of her Yerushalayim Shel Zahav. And I wouldn’t underestimate that for a second. And I cannot imagine any Jewish person in the world doesn’t hear Naomi Shemer’s version or her song, doesn’t feel something of that sense of pride welling up.
And I know many people I’ve spoken to, friends and others, in times of dark trouble or difficulty, this, it’s her song that re-inspires a pride and inspiration, a kind of life force, which is how she saw the city. And ultimately, it’s a city which sits alone. And it has a heart, it has a wall for Jewish people, The Wailing Wall, The Western Wall. It has a wall. Absurd, but it’s a wall, I mean, that’s all. But it sits alone, it’s God’s home and it’s a home, and you have to feel that, let’s think of Spielberg’s, ET, “What do you want, ET?” “ET wants to go home.” It’s so powerful as an archetypal myth. “Go home.” Next, you’re in Jerusalem and so on. So it’s that sense of home, a sense of belonging, out of exile, out of assimilation, out of all the trials, and tribulations of wandering around the world for 2000 years, it’s home. And the draw is probably one of the most powerful archetypal drives in humanity, and of course, Jews everywhere. Okay, the next one I want to show is going to play this, sorry, if we can go onto the next slide, please. This is a little bit of her lyrics. I’ll just go through, just pick up a few moments here, and there of the lyrics of Yerushalayim Shel Zahav, 'cause that’s, to me, it’s the central song of Jerusalem. “The mountain air is clear as wine. The scent of pines is carried on the breeze of twilight with the sound of bells. And in the slumber of tree and stone captured in her dream, the city that sit solitary, and in it’s midst is a wall, Jerusalem of gold, bronze of light. Behold, I am a violin for all your songs.” It’s so beautiful. And yet so concrete, “Mountain air is clear as wine.” It hawks back to even Homer, talks all about the wine, dock, sea, the sea is compared to colours of wine all the time.
The mountain air in, it’s Homer’s Odyssey, “The mountain air is clear as wine.” The centrality of wine, 'cause of course, in the Roman times, they drank wine more than anything else, more than water. “And the scent of pines is carried on the breeze of twilight with the sound of bells.” Slumber, tree and stone, they slumber, they sleep. They’re not threatening or malicious. It’s a city that is solitary. There is a wall. And then, “Behold, I am the violin for all your songs.” She pulls together ancient references to biblical, the violin, the Psalms, David, and other things, which are biblical references inside her poetry. Go on to the next slide, please. “How the cisterns have dried. The marketplace is empty. No one frequents the Temple Mount in the Old City. And in the caves in the mountain winds are blowing. No one descends to the Dead Sea by way of Jericho. Jerusalem of gold.” Et cetera. So it’s comparing it to Jericho, the Dead Sea, it’s Jerusalem, that is the gold, again, it’s not physical gold. It is the gold of spirit, of nationality, of Jewish identity, of statehood and this, and ultimately the home, the dwelling of God, therefore, the dwelling of the people and the caves, and all the other things all around. Okay, if we can go on the next slide, please. “And as I come to sing to you today, to adorn crowns to you, I am the smallest of the youngest of your children, and of the last poet.
For your name scorches the lips like the kiss of a seraph. If I forget thee, Jerusalem.” Of course, the echo from the Bible, “If I forget thee, take off my right hand.” And so on. So never forget, why never forget, Jerusalem? Not only is it the spiritual home, but it is the heart, home of Judaism, but it is the place of belonging with Jews, and everything can come out of that. This is the ultimate belonging where God, and therefore, Jewish identity must be located. We go on to the next slide, please. “We have returned to the cisterns.” To the mountain, obviously all coming back. “The ram horn calls out in the Old City. The caves of the mountain, thousands of suns shine.” That’s a reference to Homer again. “We will once again descend to the Dead Sea by way of Jericho.” In other words, exile and belonging, dispersion and belonging, wandering the earth and belonging. “We will once again descend to the Dead Sea by way of Jericho.” “We will come back.” The Exodus, the Moses echoes of these biblical, everything comes out of Egypt, whether Egypt is the last 2000 years of wandering in exile, coming back to belong. Onto to the next slide, please. Okay, so for me it’s ultimately, it’s about what she gets in the poetry, is exile and belonging, the home of the Jewish people, the identity, the nationality, the religion. And of course, out of assimilation and out of exile, wandering, endless anxiety associated with all of that. Where to belong, ET go home, same thing.
Okay, Meir Ariel of the next one I want to look at, who was a fascinating guy for me. And he did his own version of the song called Jerusalem of Steel, sometimes translated, Jerusalem of Iron. And I’m going to play the song in a second with his lyrics. Meir Ariel was a famous singer and songwriter in Israel, tragically died young. He was a young paratrooper in the Six Day War, and he was one of them who ran through the streets of Jerusalem as a paratrooper. And he heard Naomi Shemer’s song on the radio and sat down, and wrote his own version, literally on a scrap of paper. It sounds romantic, but it’s true. And his version is a love song, same as hers, but it’s a sadder one. I said almost if the combination of lamentation, and celebration or lamentation, and joy in Naomi Shemer, this to me is lamentation. There’s joy and love for the city and the reclaiming it for the Jewish people up to 2000 years. But it’s also the sadness and the lamentation of those 2000 years. And the fellow soldiers who have died to capture it. And fellow soldiers who have died in the Six Day War. He became known as the singing paratrooper, and he reacted to what he saw as a kind of hyper patriotism amongst Israelis, a sort of extra hyper as opposed to a deeper sense of identity with a beautiful patriotism. It’s a subtle distinction. He fought in the Yom Kippur war as well.
He was in the Suez Canal, as we all know, where Sharon’s tanks. Meir Ariel passed away at age of 57 of typhus. Okay, if we can play the next one, please. This is his version, his song, Jerusalem of Steel. Thanks, so we can freeze it there, please. Yeah, I love this picture as well, which we all know I’m sure very, very well, of the 67 War when finally Jerusalem returned to the Jewish people. And also, but his song is out of darkness and light, is led and dreams, very different to her Jerusalem of Gold. It’s a much sadder lamentation. There’s a love story, there’s a love in the heart of Jerusalem, which is known to these guys, to him, but it’s also a sadness how many have died, not only in terms of the six day war to conquer Jerusalem again, but over thousands of, 2000 year history, coming home, so that theme for me, of course, it’s the ancient Jewish theme, exile and belonging, so powerful as an archetypal theme, but it’s captured in his song for me, out of darkness comes light, but also the Jerusalem, city of lead and dreams, the price to pay in human life and bullets and guns, and mortars to have the city, constant to and fro, and it’s a more contemporary version maybe as we think of our own times today, of course, and the way he sings it, it’s such a gentle beauty in the song and the guitar that contrasts with the darkness and the light of the meaning of the song. Okay, so I want to go onto the next one, please, if we go onto the next slide. This is a brief clip, if we could just freeze it there for a sec. Thanks, thanks, Jess. This is just a brief clip. I’m only going to show a minute of a contemporary group, 2001 who are an Israeli group called Hadag Nahash, who have, they combine hip hop and funk, and punk and a bit of rock.
And this, the word Hadag Nahash means the fish snake, and also combine a bit of reggae in it. One of Israel’s most successful contemporary bands in the 21st century, they’ve already made eight albums, this is their song in a very hip hop contemporary way for young, the TikTok generation, about Jerusalem. Can play it, please. If you can freeze it there, please, Jess. Thanks. So, I mean, I just wanted to show a short clip of this because it’s fantastic. It’s fun, TikTok generation, very hip hop, very reggae-influenced, bit of punk as well, very contemporary version linked to Yerushalayim Shel Zahav, much more gritty, urban, the sense of restless, modern ceaseless city that has so many different aspects, and a sort of urban, gritty grime and beauty of it. And that sort of, almost like sprawling city feeling of it, of contemporary hip hop that hip hop captures, and with a bit of reggae inside some of those musical riffs as well. Okay, could show the next one, please. William Blake, 1808, okay, which is huge globally. And one of, is almost regarded as a second anthem in Britain. “And did those feet in ancient time walk upon England’s mountain green. And was the holy Lamb of God on England’s pleasant pastures seen. And did the Countenance Divine shine forth upon the clouded hills. And was Jerusalem builded here among these dark satanic mills?”
Two of the great lines of William Blake. Most people in the west know it, “Was Jerusalem builded here among those dark satanic mills?” Industrial revolution factories, grime, smoke, we can imagine, early 1800s, pollution, cities, working through the workhouses. All of that, the dark underbelly of the Victorian age. “Was Jerusalem builded here?” In beautiful Britain. “Among these dark satanic mills.” Such a powerful two couple of lines by Blake combining the darkness and the light. Can go onto the next one, please. Next slide. “Bring me my bow of burning gold. Bring me my arrows of desire. Bring me my spear, o clouds unfold. Bring me my chariot of fire.” Obviously the biblical references. “I will not cease from mental fight. Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand. Till we have built Jerusalem, and England’s green and pleasant land.” So, “I will not sleep till we have built Jerusalem.” The beauty, the spirituality, the home, the emotional home. What has happened to English identity? The beginning of the Victorian age, the dark satanic mills, the harsh grime and filth and pollution, and tough lives of the beginning of the industrial revolution, factory times. Okay, it’s, “I will not sleep until Jerusalem.” So the myth of Jerusalem in the western imagination, “Build Jerusalem at home.” So he, what he’s calling for is build what the spiritual, and the mythical and the sense of identity, and the, of humanity ultimately, that that can be built in one’s own country home, wherever it is. Now, to play briefly, this was put to music, of course. Can show the next slide, please. And briefly a little bit of this almost regarded as the second anthem of the English. Sorry, if we can play that one, the one before, yeah. Play the music, thank you.
♪ And did those feet in ancient time ♪ ♪ Walk upon England’s mountains green ♪ ♪ And was the holy ♪ ♪ Lamb of God ♪ ♪ On England’s pleasant pasture seen ♪ ♪ And did the Countenance Divine ♪ ♪ Shine forth upon ♪ ♪ Our clouded hills ♪ ♪ And was- ♪ So, “Was Jerusalem builded here?”
This, it’s such a, it’s a stunningly interesting version of Blake’s song. We get the pride, but what is it saying about Jerusalem, the city in the western and British imagination for this, how it’s adapted Blake’s poem, this pride, this incredibly hierarchical sense of life and structure. Not only class, but hierarchy, the king down to the people. And also a sombre reverential feeling inside the song. Where’s the joy? Where’s even the lamentation? A sense of exile and belonging doesn’t exist. The sense of this is the root of England is so deep, so ancient. And, “This is the Jerusalem that we have built in England.” Is the kind of, for me, the meaning here. This is what Jerusalem is. We’ve got such a sense of history and pride and reverence for the history of, whether it’s Henry VIII or whether it’s whoever, going all the way down and such a, it’s stirring, it’s militant, it’s war, sense of empire and power as opposed to Naomi Shemer, or any of the others. It’s very much more the human level, and lived on the human level, jostling and of beauty, and lamentation, of exile and belonging, of sorrows and joys, all of that. This is so much more, as I say, sombre, stirring, and militant and beautiful. This is what Jerusalem may be in a western imagination. Fascinating to observe a contrast just as one example.
Okay, I want to just briefly look at the end of one, or two of Yehuda Amichai’s poems, one of the most beautiful poets as Ted Hughes remarked, one of the most remarkable poets of our times, obviously, died a little while ago. Yehuda Amichai, one of the most important, and translated Israeli poets, probably the most world known Israeli poet about Jerusalem. “Jerusalem.” And this is his one poem, “Jerusalem is a port city. Jerusalem is a port city on the shore of eternity. The mountain, the temple mount is a great ship from her portholes, her wailing wall, jubilant saints, pier like passengers. Hasidim on the pier wave, goodbye, yelling, hurrah, bon voyage. She’s always docking, always embarking. The ram’s horn sounds out sunset. One more has set sail. Yom Kippur’s sailors in white uniforms ascend between the ladders of prayer and the prophets of market and gates, and golden cap domes. Jerusalem is the Venice of God.” The Venice of God, the merchant of Venice, my, stock market, shares, money, but it’s also Venice, the beauty of Venice and the city, and the art and the architecture and the culture. Yet, it’s a jostling, restless, modern city for Yehuda Amichai. Then his second poem, I want to read of three today. “Jerusalem is a spinning carousel spinning round, and round from the old city through every neighbourhood, and back to the old. And you can’t get off. If you jump, you’re risking your life. Instead of painted elephants and horses to ride, religions go up, go down and around on their axis. Jerusalem is a seesaw. Sometimes I go down to past generations, and sometimes up into the sky. Even then, like a child dangling on high, legs swinging, I cry, I want to get down, daddy, daddy, I want to get down, father.
And like that, all the saints go up to the sky. They’re like children screaming, daddy, I want to stay high, daddy, father, don’t bring me down, father, leave me on a high.” It’s joyful, it’s playful, it’s ceaseless, restless. There’s constant conflict between, I think, again, belonging and not belonging, secular and religious. All the tensions jostling inside Amichai the poet, and he sees in the streets of the city. The last poem I want to read today from Yehuda Amichai, Tourists, which I love this poem, just a brief bit of it. “Visits of condolence. Visits of condolence is all we get from them. They’re squat at the Holocaust memorial. They’re put on grave faces at the Wailing Wall, and they laugh behind the heavy curtains in their hotels. They have their picture taken together with our famous dead, Rachel’s tomb, at Herzl’s tomb. And on the top of Ammunition Hill, they weep over our sweet boys and lust over our tough girls, and hang up their underwear to dry quickly, and cool blue bathrooms in the hotels.” Amazing, it’s so contemporary. It’s got an echo of a song we’re going to now, a poem by Primo Levi. But it’s Jerusalem, the modern Jerusalem seen by Yehuda Amichai, jostling, restless, all these themes I’ve spoken about. And then the tourists, the visitors, totally different if we imagine the crusaders, the Islamists, the Christians, so many others over centuries.
The Romans conquering, coming and taking, from the inside he’s imagining. Born in Wurzburg in Germany in 1924. He’s been translated into 33 languages. And he says, he said, “My personal history has coincided with a larger history.” And I think that is completely true of every Jewish person on the planet. “My personal history has coincided with a larger history.” And that’s what he’s capturing all the time. That’s what Naomi Shemer captures. That’s what all these others, I think for me, capture in their poetry. And very lastly, a phrase or two from a very interesting American writer who said that, “Amichai translates the hardness of existence into tenderness, tenderness into spiritual wonder that is actually a quiet outrage.” Beautiful phrase is a quiet outrage inside Amichai’s poetry about Jerusalem and the whole history, and culture of Jews as we know. “He creates a mixture of worry and love and warmth.” Bit of worry. “His lamentation, is it joyful? Dreams are mistaken. There’s a shortage of faith, of loves and humiliation, and like everyone else, Amichai wants everything both ways. He wants to be a lover and a loner, a guy in the street, and an intellectual, a believer and an infidel.” The role of the artist, the role of the poet, about Amichai, wanting to be all these contradictions in every person, especially as an Israeli, and I think captures ultimately the contradictions of the city, the modern city going way back to Roman, and before Roman times, David and others. The entire mythology of the world, almost through the Jewish eyes, through the city. So many disparate elements. And we capture certain moments, certain parts of it when we think of Jerusalem in poetry and in myth and song. Okay, I’m going to hold it there, and we can go to some questions, thanks.
Q&A and Comments:
Mavis, yeah, thanks, that’s great, I agree.
Q: Ronald, “Why not say 70 after Jesus? When we say Christ, we are giving Jesus powers.”
A: Yeah, that’s a good point. I mean, I hear you, Ronald, but I guess we have to think of all the different connotations, whether it’s Jesus, or Christ, I guess I’m being, using the word in a contemporary way as opposed to that deeper, religious way maybe. But that’s a good point,
Ronald, thank you. Cheryl, University calls it the Common Area, yeah. Rita.
Q: Cheryl, “No need to mention him, why?”
A: I think we do need to mention, I would suggest that we can have a lovely debate about this. I think it’s absolutely crucial. I mean, he was Jewish, and also so many debates we can get into about which name and when, which I think are fascinating.
Susan, sadly, no song to come out of the war, no, not yet, Susan.
Q: Ron, “Where have all the flowers gone?”
A: Yeah, exactly, Ron, thanks. So it’s great, and good to see you. Hope you’re well.
Rochelle, “Goosebumps every time.” I get it as well, we all heard it many times, goosebumps. Absolutely, Naomi as well.
Pamela, “Naomi Shemer changed words of some of the verses after 67.” Yes, 'cause she returned, I know, exactly that. And I wanted to just do the bit before to contrast with the other song written by the paratrooper.
Dennis, I hope you’ll mentioned William Blake. Yes, Jerusalem. “Writhing to build Jerusalem in England’s green pleasant land.” Yeah.
Thank you, Rita, thank you, very kind.
Q: Pat, “Can you repeat the context of a world without Jews is like a dead star.”
A: That beautiful quote was Naomi Shemer, Pat, where she said she thought a world devoid of Jews is like a dead star. And I think it’s an extraordinary quote from a wonderful, brilliant Israeli poet, Naomi Shemer. It just resonates endlessly for me, and I’m sure for many others.
Rhonda, thank you. “I thought-” Yeah, exactly. Transported in time and a spiritual journey. One can’t help be caught up in the mythology, the stories, the history, the culture, all these ancient times, and see this bustling, jostling city of our times. Absolutely. And the ancient meaning of home, God’s home. It’s such a profound thought that a city is God’s home. I mean, it’s such a profound thought. The Acropolis in Greece and other, it’s not that God, the Greeks had 2,000 gods, but Zeus’s home is not in Acropolis. Jupiter’s home is not in Rome. So it’s the first time in any religion that we know a home is actually in a city and then a temple, in a city, and then what happens when the temple, and the city is destroyed? Temples have to be built all over. And that’s part of the, as I spoke about before, happening after the destruction of the temple in 70, and the scholars go off and the city’s destroyed. And people are slaughtered, yeah. And they go off and they say, “Well, we’ve got to build a home elsewhere. But never forget that’s the ultimate home.” “The music was fabulous.” Thank you. “It enhanced the preparation of matzah.” Yeah, the Passover. Happy Passover to you, Rhonda, and to everybody.
Cara, she added the verse after the Six Day War, yes. More than the reunification. But that’s why I left that version out so as to have his version, which as a paratrooper, part of the conquering of Jerusalem comes after. I know. Didn’t he say bring tears to my eyes every time as well, but also pride.
Rita, the rap band was Hadag Hadash.
Susan, “We pray for peace.” Absolutely.
Q: Rochelle, “Interesting contemporary sound. But what have they done since?”
A: Well, they’ve released eight albums in total, that group. But not only, that’s one song, which is about Jerusalem, which is their adapted version of Yerushalayim Shel Zahav of Naomi Shemer.
Rita, “Richie Goldman took them up.” Oh yeah. Little yellow round reminded me of a little statue, I’d say more, yes. Okay, that’s great, thanks, Pat, and yeah.
Dennis, thank you so much for your question, Dennis.
Amy, “There’s the awareness of the statement of Christian colonialism, Holy Lamb of God, indeed.” Well, that’s why, I mean, there are many examples, but I just showed the one of Blake’s, 'cause that’s probably the most famous, “To build Jerusalem in England’s green and pleasant land.” But it’s compared to the dark satanic mills for Blake. But the version that is portrayed now in the patriotic version I showed, the dark, satanic mills remains a line. It doesn’t remain a dark, tough, hard, terrible time for many of the British population of the time as well. It’s very different kind of pride and militancy, and sense of grandiosity. It’s empire stuff.
Amy, yeah. Anemah, next slide, Amichai, yeah.
Pat, thank you, thank you, Pat. It’s, yeah, it does, as well, we can’t, we are caught up in the mythology, the poetry, the history of it completely.
“Jerusalem is full of Jews.” Yeah, exactly, Yehuda Amichai and others, absolutely.
Ron, “Blake wrote Jerusalem in 1808. Yep. "Before the Victorian era.” Yep. “Victoria was not born.” Yeah. Thank you for that, Ron, I appreciate. For me, it’s the beginning of the industrialization, the industrial period, which then becomes, as you’re saying, spot on, Ron. And thank you for that correction, spot on with what is coming in terms of the industrial age, the industrial revolution, which is remarkable changes in developments, technology and science evolve so fast, and human rights, but also there’s the dark underbelly of the workers inside that period.
Yep. Marsha, thank you. Denise, thank you. Stories, yeah. Okay, thank you, Denise. Rita, very kind comments.
Julian, “I haven’t heard the dead star, but it fits. Purpose of Israel as a nation, the light unto the nations.” She’s absolutely aware of it.
“A world devoid of Jews is like a dead star.” We can never forget it. It’s a line of poetry that just soars.
Carol, “Hadag Nadash.” Yeah.
Q: Maria, “Was a little yellow figure the outline?”
A: I’ll have to check that, thank you. Perhaps it’s called the Mannequin Art, great.
Sunny, “Oh that contemporary ese song, Jerusalem.” Yeah, yeah, yeah. And there’s a contemporary play written by Patrick Marber called Jerusalem. And many, many others, there’s so many. Today, it was just to give a tiny little taste of, from a Jew’s perspective primarily, and a little bit from other perspective from the British and other.
Okay, so I just want to say at the end, I’m really grateful to my niece, Adele, who lives in Jerusalem. She really helped me prepare some ideas in sharing with her on this. Okay, so thank you, everybody and hope you’re well, and have a great rest of Passover, and hope you had a great Seder.