At the crossroads - על אם הדרך

At the crossroads a tree stood.	על אם הדרך עץ עמד.
Stood and fell bent over.	עמד נופל אפיים.
Sleep well, child. The night fell.	נומה, בן. הלילה רד.
A stormy night in the water.	ליל סער על המים.
Hush, child. The boat is leaning	הס, ילד. הספינה על צד
Bent from the raging wind.	נוטה מזעף רוח.
At the crossroads a tree stood,	על אם הדרך עץ עמד,
No flowers and no fruits.	אין ציץ ואין תפוח.
To this tree, son, a long time ago	אל זה העץ אי פעם, בן,
Your mother’s father came.	אבי אמך הגיע.
And he took shelter in the tree’s evening shade	וצל ערבית בעץ קינן
And no branch was disturbed.	ובד הוא לא הניע.
Your mother’s father raised his head,	כבש בו ראש אבי אמך,
His face towards Jerusalem.	פניו לירושלים.
Crying, he carried out the Mincha prayer,	נשא בבכי תפילת מנחה,
One with his G-d.	עם אלוהיו בשניים.
To this tree, son, your father	אל זה העץ אביך, בן,
Was tied, bound by rope.	נקשר, עקוד בחבל.
With iron and a whip they struck him, son,	ברזל ושוט הכוהו, בן,
And his warm naive soul started leaving his body.	וחם תימר ההבל.
And when it was like red hot fire	וכשהיה כאש אדום
The sharper-than-a-sword whip,	השוט החד מחרב,
Your father silently collapsed to the ground,	צנח אביך ארצה דום,
At the time of Mincha, with the evening.	לעת מנחה, עם ערב.
He slowly collapsed from his altar,	צנח ממזבחו לאט,
His face towards Jerusalem.	פניו לירושלים.
Hush, child. The boat is leaning	הס, ילד. הספינה על צד
Kneeling, kissing the water.	כורעה, נושקת מים.
The boat is kneeling on its side,	כורעת הספינה על צד,
Rising, drawing out its nails!	עולה שלופת ציפורן!
At the crossroads a tree was cut,	על אם הדרך עץ נכרת,
Was cut and made into a mast…	נכרת ויהי לתורן…
Hush, child. The gate of glory	הס, ילד. שער התהילה
To the mast will open.	לתורן יפתח.
Today it is also a praying lectern,	הוא גם היום עמוד תפילה,
Today it is also an altar.	הוא גם היום מזבח.
At the crossroads a tree stood	על אם הדרך עץ עמד
And will not fall bent over.	ולא יפול אפיים.
Hush, child. The boat is leaning	הס, ילד. הספינה על צד
Rowing, splitting the water.	חותרה, בוקעת מים.

English does not do this song justice. I translated this song as best I could, but every word of this song is a beautiful metaphor that does not work in English. I took some creative liberty to restructure some of these phrases and remove many of the metaphors.

This is a Zionistic poem turned song written by the renown Israeli poet Nathan Alterman. It shows a tree's relationship with three generations of a Jewish family. The third generation, a boy, is being told the story of the tree likely by his mother or grandmother.

The tree where the boy's grandfather prayed is the same tree where is father was killed, and is the same tree which eventually served as the mast that carried him all the way to the land of Israel (after the Holocaust).

The poet, Nathan Alterman, wrote this song with a specific boat in mind, 'Homeland', which really did start tipping over to one side on its way to Israel. This boat was smuggling Jews to Israel, but eventually the tipping became so bad that they had to put out an SOS signal (SOS meaning Save Our Ship). The British got the ship to Haifa, where they consequently transferred the passengers to Cyprus in early 1947. Presumably, a year later, the passengers were able to return to the state of Israel for good. See the ship depicted below:

This song isn't particularly deep as far as I can tell, it is just expertly written, very beautiful and poetic. I urge you to try reading the Hebrew and try deciphering the motifs for yourself (not you MGNNK). If you have any ideas on how to improve my translations, please post a comment below or contact me, I think everyone should enjoy from this literary work.

Each day I go to your home - יום יום אני הולך למעונך

Each day I go to your (feminine) home	יום יום אני הולך למעונך
And a word on my lips is scared	ומילה על שפתי חרדה
And when the word is about to be said	בטרם עוד תוגד המילה
And if it’s said one day, who knows	ואם תוגד יום אחד מי ידע
Who knows	מי ידע.
Each day I go to your home…	יום יום אני הולך למעונך…
Each day on the way to your home	יום יום על הדרך למעונך
The light of my joy shines	אור אושרי על ראשי לוהט
And when I return my star will whisper to me	ובשובי לי ילאט כוכבי
And the hidden secret of my sorrow trembled Each day	וכמוס סוד עצבו רועד יום יום.
Each day I go to your home	יום יום אני הולך למעונך
And a word on my lips is scared	ומילה על שפתי חרדה
Each day I go to your home	יום יום אני הולך למעונך
And no secret is slipped to you. x4	ואלייך לא גונב עוד דברx4 .
Each day I go to your home…	יום יום אני הולך למעונך …

Finally, a song that has nothing to do with war. This song is a very relatable song—a man goes over to a woman's home every day, spends a lot of time with her, and wants to tell her that he loves her... but every day he returns home not telling her how he feels.

And that's the whole song, the singer just repeats over and over how he goes to her home... and returns without saying anything. I recommend listening to it, and hearing the emotions it's sung with, and the feeling of almost helplessness.

I think it's a pretty song, it has some nice lines in it:

And when the word is about to be said—notice how this is an incomplete sentence in the song. The fact that this sentence isn't completed, is a poetic way of saying that the period of time where the word is about to be said never arrives. In other words, the word is never said.

And when I return my star will whisper to me
And the hidden secret of my sorrow trembled

The above two lines had some meaning lost in translation, so picture this: As this guy returns from his female friend's house, imagine a star whispering to him things like: You should've told her that you loved her and Not again and You messed up. And the guy fills up with sorrow after his 'star' on his shoulder reminds him of his secret.

If you can read Hebrew, then you can see that the Hebrew is actually much prettier than my English translation. If not, I'll elaborate below:

And a word on my lips is scared—the image you should be having is a word that you have on the tip of your tongue and you're itching to say it, but it's anxious/scared to come out

And no secret is slipped to you.—this sounds weird. I didn't know how to make it better, without losing meaning. The literal translation is: And nothing is stolen to you. Not by you, but to you. This is a saying in Hebrew, when you (innocently) slip something into a conversation, it's called to 'steal' it into the conversation. So this line is saying that every day he goes to her home... and she didn't get the hint, or he didn't even give a hint, that he loves her.

Waking Up

They were tearing down the desert highway,

Like a bullet through the still of the heat

He was pointing at the constellations,

She was sleeping in the passenger seat

You said we're finally gonna get out,

I think we're finally gonna get out, yeah

Oh I can feel it

I'm finally waking up

I'm finally waking up (I know)

I'm finally waking up

I'm finally waking up (I know)

We were caught up in an endless circle,

Always looking for a place we could dream

We were swimming in the deepest ocean,

Wondering why we couldn't find any beach

I think we're finally gonna get out...

I'm finally waking up...

In the black night, melting away,

As the red sun rolls in its place

She sat up stretched and reached for the edge of the sky

Then opened her eyes and woke up

I'm finally waking up, waking up

(Wake up)

I'm finally waking up...

Usually the above section contains a translation, but since this song is already in English, it feels pretty bare. Furthermore, I'm a bit out of my comfort zone in this analysis—I'm less familiar with this band, or with relatively recent music in general. Therefore I'm less confident in this analysis than my previous ones, and would greatly appreciate any feedback or corrections. In any case, I'm hoping this analysis provides you with more meaning to this song.


To start off, there's the clear repeated message of waking up, which is connected to getting out. Getting out implies a current state of stuck, and is communicated using the first person plural (we're finally gonna get out), meaning that there are multiple people who are stuck, and are going to get out together. Waking up, in contrast, is communicated using the first person singular (I'm finally waking up), meaning that only one person needs to wake up.

In addition to that, let's establish the notion that since waking up is a much anticipated event, then conflicting events, such as nighttime, sleeping, or dreaming, are obstructive, and by extension are counterproductive to the goal of "getting out".

Let's now digest this song piece by piece:

They were tearing down the desert highway,

Like a bullet through the still of the heat

From here we already establish what will become a recurring image of this couple who are physically together. They are in a car going down the highway together.

He was pointing at the constellations,

She was sleeping in the passenger seat

While the man is engaged, pointing at constellations, the woman is just sleeping, painting an image of a disconnected couple. This is our first image of the couple's disconnect, although keep in mind that even here they are physically together. In order to analyze this further, we need to return to our previous stipulation: that events conflicting with 'waking up' are counterproductive. The fact that there are constellations implies that it is nighttime, which already is problematic. Furthermore, the woman is sleeping which is in clear obstruction to waking up.

Now I'm going to make several claims that might initially seem far-fetched, but you will hopefully be convinced of them by the end of this analysis. The constellations represent the problems in this couple's relationship. The man, therefore, was pointing out their problems as a couple, while the woman was sleeping—neither acknowledging nor addressing them. From here we understand the both literal and figurative message that it is the woman that needs to wake up, in order for them both to come out of their hole as a couple.

The next stanza backs up the man's claims that the couple has problems, while affirming the notion that the couple is in this together (they are not going their separate ways, they both ultimately want the relationship to succeed, just the woman doesn't acknowledge their problems yet):

We were caught up in an endless circle,

Always looking for a place we could dream

We were swimming in the deepest ocean,

Wondering why we couldn't find any beach

As you can see from the above images, the couple has problems; they are stuck in an endless circle, they are stuck in the deepest ocean—their relationship is definitely stuck. However, they are still in it together, they were caught up in the circle together, they were swimming in the ocean together. I'd also like to point out a side note that while in other contexts looking for a place to dream seems hopeful, when we recall that dreaming is counterproductive to the theme of waking up, we realize that they are also looking for the wrong things as a couple. I thought that was a nice little addition.

In the resolution of this song, the woman finally acknowledges their problems as a couple, and by doing so finally wakes up. This concluding stanza is rich with beautiful imagery and metaphors, so I'll include it below with a little blurb about it:

In the black night, melting away,

As the red sun rolls in its place

She sat up stretched and reached for the edge of the sky

Then opened her eyes and woke up

Remember that they are still in the car; the last thing that happened in the car was the man pointing out the constellations (their problems) while the woman was sleeping. Now in the resolution, the woman sits up in the car and reaches for the sky—symbolically reaching towards the constellations, acknowledging their problems—before finally waking up. The beautiful scenery accompanying this moment was fittingly the break of dawn, where all the stars start fading away.

While I'm hoping that this analysis can deepen your understanding and love for this song, I strongly recommend listening to it again, because no written words can do justice to the amazing vocals complementing the meaning of this song (for example, compare the two times they say, "Oh I can feel it")

A song for peace - שיר לשלום

Let the sun rise	תנו לשמש לעלות
The morning to shine,	לבוקר להאיר,
The purest of prayers	הזכה שבתפילות
Won’t bring us back.	אותנו לא תחזיר.
He who extinguished their flame	מי אשר כבה נרו
And was buried in the dirt,	ובעפר נטמן,
Bitter tears won’t wake him up	בכי מר לא יעירו
Won’t bring him back here.	לא יחזירו לכאן.
No man shall return us	איש אותנו לא ישיב
From the dark and somber pit,	מבור תחתית אפל,
Here we won’t be helped	כאן לא יועילו
By neither the joy of victory	לא שמחת הניצחון
Nor the songs of praise.	ולא שירי הלל.
Therefore just sing—a song for peace	לכן, רק שירו שיר לשלום
Don’t whisper a prayer	אל תלחשו תפילה
Even better—sing a song for peace	מוטב תשירו שיר לשלום
In a loud shout!	בצעקה גדולה.
Let the sun penetrate	תנו לשמש לחדור
Through the flowers.	מבעד לפרחים.
Don’t look back,	אל תביטו לאחור,
Make peace with those who have gone.	הניחו להולכים.
Set your sights on hope,	שאו עיניים בתקווה,
Not through the scopes (of rifles)	לא דרך כוונות
Sing a song for happiness	שירו שיר לאהבה
And not for wars.	ולא למלחמות.
Don’t say ‘the day will come’—	אל תגידו יום יבוא —
Bring on that day!	הביאו את היום!
(Because it’s not a dream)	)כי לא חלום הוא(
And in all the town squares	ובכל הכיכרות
Cheer only for peace!	הריעו רק שלום!
Therefore just sing—a song for peace…	לכן, רק שירו שיר לשלום...

This song is again a song related to war, but it's written in a very different perspective. Try to guess through who's voice we're hearing this song. If you aren't sure, I urge you to go back and reread it, trying to see who is singing this song.

Spoiler below:

In any case, this song is sung by those who have already passed away. If you didn't already see that, try rereading again to see what meaning you may have missed.

This first 3 stanzas are talking about the singer(s) themselves. The key idea is that nothing and nobody can return the fallen back to life, that even if their army won the war, it doesn't have any effect on those who have fallen. This all sets the stage to the key conclusion of this song—pretty unsurprising from the song title—that the only way to end war casualties is to not have war—to have peace.

There reasonable conclusion is therefore to sing a song for peace, and they seem adamant about it. When this song is sung, it is shouted strongly and confidently, as they say, you do not whisper a prayer (peace).

The last 3 stanzas of the song direct the listeners (the living) on how to continue their lives. First, don't cry over spilt milk, let go of those who have fallen, nothing good will come from clinging on to them. Next, focus your efforts towards hope, happiness, avoid wars and conflict. And finally, it points out that many people will just hope for the day of peace to come, but won't actively do anything to bring it on. It affirms to the listeners that the days of peace are not a dream, and that it is on them to bring on that period.

This song was originally created by and for the Israeli army and was commonly sung by soldiers to soldiers. Most Israeli army songs are about the sadness of war, far fewer about the glory. Going along with the theme of this song, the Israeli army is known as the Israeli Defense Force(s), whose purpose is primarily to defend Israel against its many enemies.