In these days of joy and uncertainty following the release of Gilad Shalit, I am reminded of Naomi Shemer’s beautiful song Al Kol Eleh (“For all these things”) written after the Yom Kippur War.

“Every bee that brings the honey / Needs a sting to be complete / And we all must learn to taste the bitter with the sweet.

Keep, oh Lord, the fire burning / Through the night and through the day /
For the man who is returning / from so far away.

Don’t uproot what has been planted / So our bounty may increase / Let our dearest wish be granted: / Bring us peace, oh bring us peace.

For the sake of all these things, Lord, / Let your mercy be complete
Bless the sting and bless the honey / Bless the bitter and the sweet.

Save the houses that we live in / The small fences and the wall / From the sudden war-like thunder / May you save them all.

Guard what little I’ve been given / Guard the hill my child might climb / Let the fruit that’s yet to ripen / Not be plucked before its time.

As the wind makes rustling night sounds / And a star falls in its arc / All my dreams and my desires  / Form crystal shapes out of the dark.

Guard for me, oh Lord, these treasures / All my friends keep safe and strong,
Guard the stillness, guard the weeping, / And above all, guard this song.”

NOTE: In 2018, 12,000 Israelis sang Al Kol Eleh in a Tel Aviv stadium with the then President of the State, Ruvi Rivlin, singing his heart out. See my later blog and a link to that spectacularly wonderful event here: https://rabbijohnrosove.blog/2020/02/09/naomi-shemers-al-ha-eleh-sung-by-12000-israelis/