Ha-Kotel
Amda na’ara mul ha-Kotel
Sfatayim kerva ve-santer
Amra li tki’ot ha-shofar chazakot hen
Aval ha-shtika od yoter.
Amra li Tziyon Har ha-Bayit
Shatka li ha-gmul ve-ha-zchut
Uma she-zahar al mitzcha bein arbayim
Haya argaman shel malchut.

Ha-Kotel, ezov ve-atzevet
Ha-Kotel, oferet va-dam
Yesh anashim im lev shel even
Yesh avanim im lev adam.

Amad ha-tzanchan mul ha-Kotel
Mikol machlakto rak echad
Amar li la-mavet ein dmut ach yesh koter
Tish’a milimeter bilvad.
Amar li eineni dome’a
Ve-shav le-hashpil mabatim
Ach saba sheli, Elohim ha-yode’a
Kavur kan be-Har ha-Zeitim.

Ha-Kotel, ezov ve-atzevet
Ha-Kotel, oferet va-dam
Yesh anashim im lev shel even
Yesh avanim im lev adam.

Amda bi-shchorim mul ha-Kotel
Imo shel echad min ha-chi’ir
Amra li einei na’ari ha-dolkot hen
Ve-lo ha-nerot sheba-kir.
Amra li eineni roshemat
Shum petek litmon bein sdkav
Ki ma she-natati la-Kotel rak emesh
Gadol mi-milim u-michtav.

Ha-Kotel, ezov ve-atzevet
Ha-Kotel, oferet va-dam
Yesh anashim im lev shel even
Yesh avanim im lev adam.

The Western Wall

A girl stood facing the kotel (western wall)

She drew her lips and chin close to it.

She said to me, the shofar’s blasts are strong

But the silence is even stronger.

She told me: Zion, the Temple Mount**

She was silent, about the reward and the right.

And what shone on her forehead at evening

Was the purple of royalty.

The kotel, moss and sadness.

The kotel, lead and blood.

There are people with a heart of stone.

There are stones with a human heart.

The paratrooper stood at the kotel.

Of his whole division – the only one.

He told me that death has no image

But it has a diameter –

Nine millimeters only.

He told me, I’m not shedding tears

And again lowered his glance.

But my grandfather, God knows,

Is buried here, on Har Hazeitim (the Mount of Olives) ***.

The kotel, moss and sadness.

The kotel, lead and blood.

There are people with a heart of stone.

There are stones with a human heart.

She stood, dressed in black, at the kotel.

The mother of one of the infantry soldiers.

She told me, it’s the eyes of my son that are shining

And not the candles on the wall.

She told me: I’m not writing

Any note to hide between the cracks.***

Because what I gave to the kotel only last night

Is greater than any words or writing.

The kotel, moss and sadness.

The kotel, lead and blood.

There are people with a heart of stone.

There are stones with a human heart.

* The kotel is the last surviving part of ancient Israel’s temple (Beit Hamikdash), one of its surrounding walls. A holy site symbolic of Judaism and Jewish sovereignty, Jews have visited it to pray for centuries. After Israel became independent in 1948 and until the Six Day War in ’67, the West Bank was owned by Jordan, and the kotel, Temple Mount, Mt. of Olives cemetery and holy Jewish sites in East Jerusalem and the West Bank were inaccessible to Jews. The song commemorates the soldiers who died fighting in 1967 to regain all of Jerusalem.

** The Temple Mount (Har Habayit) is the site where the temple stood. It is also a sacred site for Islam. Two mosques are there today: The Dome of the Rock (Mosque of Omar) and El Aksa Mosque.

*** The Mount of Olives is a traditional burial site, facing one of the Gates of Jerusalem (the idea is that when the Messiah comes and the dead arise, they will be able to be the first to enter).

**** There is a tradition of putting notes in the cracks, as a prayer for God’s help.