by Stan Schroeder
As Jews, we are the beneficiary of two calendars. We are familiar with the secular (Gregorian, named after Pope Gregory) calendar that we use in everyday life in the US. We are less familiar with the Hebrew calendar, although we use it for Jewish holidays and yahrzeits. Like the secular year, the Hebrew year consists of 12 months. Hebrew months are lunar months, beginning with the new moon. The year is adjusted to a solar year by adding an extra month (Adar II) seven times in a 19-year cycle. The Hebrew month of Tammuz started Tuesday, June 16.
It has another significance that has to do with the yahrzeit of Naomi Shemer, the Israeli songwriter who is most famous for writing Yerushalayim Shel Zahav(Jerusalem of Gold) in 1967. She wrote another song in 1979, Emtza Tammuz (Middle of Tammuz). In it she writes how sad it is to die in the middle of Tammuz, perhaps thinking of her own possible death. She eventually died of cancer in Tammuz in 2004.
Naomi Shemer (married name) nee Naomi Sapir was born in Kvutzat Kinneret July 13, 1930. Her parents, Rivka and Meir Sapir, were founders of the Kibbutz. Since she was a child she participated in singing and poetry reading evenings. At the age of six, with her mother’s encouragement, Naomi began piano lessons.
Established in 1913, it was known as a kibbutz whose members couldn’t agree on anything. They did agree to send Naomi to learn at musical academies in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv when she became older. A few years later she returned to the Kibbutz where she taught little children music
In 1953, she joined the IDF and served in the Nachal Brigade. It contains the prestigious IDF entertainment troupe. After she was discharged, she teamed up with composer Yochanan Zarai to help write the musical Chamesh-Chamesh (Five Five). In 1954 she married actor Gideon Shemer and in 1956 gave birth to their daughter, Halleli.
She was invited to write for the first show of the band Batzal Yarok (Hebrew for Green Onion). This enabled her to start putting her words to her own music. Her first song that she both wrote and composed was The Long Path in 1957 and was a major success.
In 1960, Shemer wrote many songs for Nachal’s entertainment troupe that were all immediate successes. All through the early sixties, Shemer wrote many songs for different groups and musicals, each one broadening her fan base. Around that time Naomi separated from her husband and went with her daughter to Paris. She came back to Israel before 1967 and was married to lawyer Mordechai Horowitz. In 1969 she gave birth to their son, Ariel Horowitz, who is now an Israeli singer-songwriter.
One of the pinnacles of Shemer’s career was in 1967 when she wrote the song Yerushalayim Shel Zahav(Jerusalem of Gold). The idea for the song came from Mayor of Jerusalem Teddy Kollek, who wanted a special song written about the city hosting the Israel Song Festival that year. The song was an instant success at the festival. Three weeks later the Six Day War broke out, and East Jerusalem and the Old City were recaptured. Shemer then added a new verse to the song describing the situation after the war. In the months after the war the song became a sort of second national anthem.
Naomi Shemer won a battle over cancer in the late seventies. At this time she wrote the song Emtza Tammuz (Middle of Tammuz) in which she foresaw her death during the Hebrew month of Tammuz. Around 20 years later, the cancer returned, and eventually led to her death June 26, 2004 during the month of Tammuz. She was buried on the Kibbutz where she was born and raised. In accordance with her wishes there was no eulogy at her funeral. Instead several of her songs were sung.
Statements by prominent Israelis after her death summarized her contributions to Israel and those of us who love the land and its inhabitants.
“Naomi Shemer’s Hebrew songs left bookmarks on the country’s history,” said President Moshe Katsav. “Her songs expressed an intense love for the country and for the people of Israel. The words of her songs are her legacy, and they will accompany us forever.”
Education Minister Limor Livnat instructed schools around the country to devote part of their studies that day to Shemer’s lifetime work. “We have had a great privilege that a giant like Naomi Shemer has lived and created in our generation,” Livnat said. “Naomi has left us an immortal legacy of Hebrew works on which many generations of Israelis will be raised,” she said. “The kingdom of Hebrew song has today lost its queen.”
Former Prime Minister Shimon Peres said Naomi Shemer was a rare example of Israeli consensus. “Few people have been able to unite the nation with their personality, with their actions and creations, and with sadness at their deaths,” Peres said. “She left us with song, taught us to mourn, and to rejoice as a nation, and as individuals.”
“Naomi Shemer’s death is a great loss,” said actor Shaike Levy, who as part of the entertainment troupe performed many of Shemer’s songs. “There are composers whose creations flow like a river. There are others whose works are like a fountain. But with Naomi Shemer it was like rain, because we all got wet,” he said.
Her closeness to the natural cycles of the Land of Israel, coupled with her deep knowledge of the Bible, its text steeped in natural imagery, made her work so Israeli. Her songs are uniquely part of this marvelous country that is so closely tied both to ancient Israel and to the modern state.
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Atzuv Lamut Be’emtza Hatamuz
Emtza Hatamuz
Atzuv lamut be’emtza hatamuz
diglei hakayitz nisa’im el al
al rosh/berosh hatoren tor homeh ve’lo yech’dal
ki al keitzech ve’al k’tzirech heidad nafal
Atzuv lamut be’emtza hatamuz
davka ksheha’afarsekim beshefa
vechol hapri davka tzochek basal
ve’al keitzech ve’al k’tzirech heidad nafal
Atzuv lamut be’emtza hatamuz
aval/achshav be’emtza hatamuz amut
el bustanei hapri shehityat’mu
heidad achar heidad nafol yipol
ve’al keitzech ve’al k’tzirech ve’al hakol
Atzuv lamut be’emtza hatamuz
It’s Sad To Die In Mid-Tammuz
Middle of Tammuz
It’s sad to die in mid-Tammuz
summer flags are carried to and fro
on the ship’s mast, noisy line and it won’t stop
for on your summer and harvest, hurrahs fell
It’s sad to die in mid-Tammuz
exactly when the peaches are plentiful
and just as all the fruit laughs in the basket
and on your summer and harvest, hurrahs fell
It’s sad to die in mid-Tammuz
but now in mid-Tammuz I shall die
to the fruit gardens that were orphaned
hurrahs after hurrahs will surely fall
and on your summer and harvest and on everything
It’s sad to die in mid-Tammuz
Naomi Shemer 1979