Alive!

 This song is a family favourite.

The other day I was watching this Eurovision performance with the twins and Twin Q asked me "Imma, it was such a long time ago, how did they know to wear yellow for the hatufim (hostages)?"

This is song is so much an anthem of the Jewish experience. At the time the song "Hai!" (Alive!) was chosen because of the deep symbolism of the Jewish state performing in a song competition in Germany, and not just Germany, but Munich. All around Europe and Israel Jewish viewers were not the only ones to shed some emotional tears at seeing Israelis singing "Am Yisrael Hai!" on German soil.

Since October 7th 2023 the lyrics are more relevant and more poignant than ever, exemplifying a Jewish ethos that maintains a hope and faith in a better tomorrow, that looks back on centuries of persecution and suffering through the lens of national survival despite each oppressor who has attempted to wipe out the Jewish people. This is the song of eternal Jewish optimism, always bittersweet, always with the thorns and the flowers, the honey and the sting, but nevertheless maintaining that hope for better times.

Our people just buried the brutally murdered Bibas mother and little boys, and the father of the Yahalomi family, and elderly Oded Lifshitz and day after day we hear of the horrors endured by the surviving hostages, those released and those still suffering Hamas captivity in Gaza. Hamas raises its head as though in triumph, with shiny new uniforms and guns and gruesomely staged hostages releases that look more like lynchings. We are surrounded by uncertainty and the constant threat that war will resume. This time of year I hear so many saying how to we even think of celebrating the upcoming Purim holiday under these circumstances? Hai, this is how we even think of Purim right now, we see it in the frame of giving thanks for the survival of the Jewish people, just like the Jews of the Persian empire did all those millennia ago after surviving Haman's attempted genocide of the Jewish people. Am Yisrael Hai, the nation of Israel lives.

Hai (Alive) peformed by Ofra Haza, Israel's entry to the 1983 Eurovision song contest hosted by Germany. (please excuse my very rough 3am translation)

Hear my brothers,

I still live!

And my two eyes are still focused on the light

I have many thorns

But also flowers

And there are so many years ahead of me

I ask

And I pray

It's good that we haven't lost hope

A hymn passes

from generation to generation

Like an eternal spring

Hai, Hai, Hai (alive, alive, alive)

This is the song that grandfather

Sang yesterday to father

And today it's me

Alive, alive, alive

I'm still alive

The nation of Israel lives!

This is the song that grandfather

Sang yesterday to father

And today it's me