YERUSHALAYIM SHEL ZAHAV
listen to the song

transliteration:
Avir harim tsalul kayayin v'rei'ah oranim
Nissa b'ru'ah ha'arbayim im kol pa'amonim
Uv'tardemat ilan va'even sh'vuyah bahalomah
Ha'ir asher badad yoshevet uv'libbah chomah

Yerushalayim shel zahav v'shel n'choshet v'shel or
Halo l'khol shirayikh ani kinnor.

Chazarnu el borot hamayim lashuk v'lakeikah
Shofar kora b'char habayit ba'ir ha'attikah
Uvam'arot asher baselah alfei sh'mashot zorchot
v'shuv nadad el yam hamelah bederekh y'richo
Yerushalayim shel zahav ....

Akh b'vo'i hayom lashir lakh v'lakh likshor ketarim
Katonti mize'ir banayikh ume'acharon hameshor'rim
Ki sh'meikh tsorev et hasefatayim kin'shikat saraf
Im eshkachekh Yerushalayim asher kulah zahav
Yerushalayim shel zahav ......

A literal translation:

The mountain air is clear as wine and the scent of pines
Is carried on the breeze of twilight with the sound of bells.
And in the slumber of tree and stone captured in her dream
The city that sits solitary and in its midst is a wall.

Chorus: Jerusalem of gold, and of bronze, and of light. Behold I am a violin for all your songs.

We have returned to the cisterns, to the market and to the market-place
A shofar calls out on the Temple Mount in the Old City.
And in the caves in the mountain thousands of suns shine -
We will once again descend to the Dead Sea by way of Jericho!

Chorus

But as I come to sing to you today, and to adorn crowns to you (i.e. to tell your praise)
I am the smallest of the youngest of your children (i.e. the least worthy of doing so) and of the last poet (i.e. of all the poets born).
For your name scorches the lips like the kiss of a seraph
If I forget thee, Jerusalem, Which is all gold...

Chorus

Return to song list Shabbat Across America, 2004

Return to song list Shabbat Across America, 2008