The Historama
Alex Ben-Arieh
P.O.Box 32128
Tel Aviv, Israel 61321
Phone: +972-547-680-086
Fax: +972-3-546-1971


The Army Bands: Lahakot Tzahal

Jewish supernumary policeman playing the accordion, circa. 1938. Photo: Lossin, p. 259




Selection:

Song Name Performer Song # in Jukebox
"Dina Barzilai" The Nachal Brigade Band Song #1
"Ammunition Hill" The Central Command Variety Ensemble Song #2
"Halfon Hill is Not Replying" The Pale Scout Trio ("Ha'Gashash Ha'Khiver") Song #3
"Flowers in the [Rifle] Barrel" The Artillery Corps Band Song #4
"In Sayeret Shaked" The Southern Command Variety Ensemble Song #5
"Seashores" The Nachal Spirit Team Song #6
"Serenity" The Nachal Brigade Band Song #7
"On Hot Summer Nights" The Artillery Corps Spirit Team Song #8
"The Settlements the 'Nachal' in Sinai" The Nachal Brigade Band Song #9
"The Third Mother" The Female Armoured Corps Recruits Band Song #10
"The Song of Peace" The Nachal Brigade Band Song #11


Song Title: Dina Barzilai ("Dina Barzilai")
Performer: The Nachal Band
Video: Nachal Band, 1960's (a later version with performer Sasi Keshet)
Year Released:
Credits: words by Chaim Hefer; music by Alexander (Sasha) Argov
Comments: The Nachal infantry brigade band is the oldest in the IDF, founded in September 1951. Many of Israel's future entertainment stars - singers, performers and writers - got their start in this band and several are featured in the songs posted on this site. Some of the prominent personailities are Yehoram Gaon, Arik Einstein, Chaim Topol, Nechama Hendel, Yoram Arbel (sports-caster), Gavri Banai, Shaike Levy and Israel ('Poli') Poliakov (members of the comedy troupe "The Pale Scout Trio"); the famous lyricist Yochanan Zarai was the band's accordionist in the 1950's.

Four-Nine-Six-Three-Five-One
Dina Barzilai
Color of the eyes, blue
Color of the hair, chestnut
The height is one hundred and sixty centimeters
Weight, fifty-eight kilograms
Dina
Dina Barzilai
Four-Nine-Six-Three-Five-One

Lieutenant Gad Rafaeli went off to eat lunch
And we, threesome, remained alone in the office
Closets made of metal
Piles of files
And around us thousands of service pouches

Yes, we know well everybody
According to the forms in the service pouch
We know everyone, we know everyone
But from all the service pouches we knew
Just one our hearts touched

Dina
Dina Barzilai
Four-Nine-Six-Three-Five-One
Color of the eyes, blue
Color of the hair, chestnut
The height is one hundred and sixty centimeters
Weight, fifty-eight kilograms
Dina
Dina Barzilai
Four-Nine-Six-Three-Five-One

Lieutenant Gad Rafaeli went off to eat lunch
And we, with Dina, remained alone in the office
We never saw you
Ever, ever
But your image here rises from the desert of files

She was born on the twentieth of the eight, fourty
It was most probably a summer day
Grapefruits in the vineyard, figs in the orchard
A highschool education where the father is [called] Efraim
Six years she's played the piano

Lieutenant Gad Rafaeli went off to eat lunch
Here on the form it's written that you forfeited family support
And your heartbeat when sitting is eighty
And the size of your breast is ninety-three

Your sports interest is swimming
If only we were swimming next to you
Laughing in the waves and laughing on the sand
You had diptheria when you were little
And they jotted down one "c.k." [physically fit] for you

Dina
Dina Barzilai
Four-Nine-Six-Three-Five-One
Color of the eyes, blue
Color of the hair, chestnut
The height is one hundred and sixty centimeters
Weight, fifty-eight kilograms
Dina
Dina Barzilai
Four-Nine-Six-Three-Five-One

Lieutenant Gad Rafaeli went off to eat lunch
The time is one and any minute he's due to return
You received a reprimand
On the eight of the fourth
But we know that the guilty party is really the First Sergeant

The personal grade in discipline is "B"
The general opinion is that you're perfectly fine
We'd still be holding the pouch for hours
But the Lieutenant is coming back, already finished eating
And he too is interested in your file

Dina
Dina Barzilai
Four-Nine-Six-Three-Five-One
Color of the eyes, blue
Color of the hair, chestnut
The height is one hundred and sixty centimeters
Weight, fifty-eight kilograms
Dina
Dina Barzilai
Four-Nine-Six-Three-Five-One

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Song Title: Ammunition Hill ("Giv'at Ha'Takhmoshet")
Performer: The Central Command Variety Ensemble
Year Released: 1968
Credits: words by Yoram Taharlev; music by Yair Rosenblum
Comments: This song celebrates a grueling battle that was waged at the site of a police station built by the British in northern Jerusalem on a site called "Ammunition Hill". During the 1948 War of Independence, the Arab Legion conquered sections of northern Jerusalem which resulted in the creation of an Israeli enclave on Mount Scopus which was cut off from the rest of Israeli Jerusalem. Ammunition Hill became one of the Jordanians' fortified positions preventing the two segments from being united. During the 1967 Six-Day war, on June 6th, Israeli paratroopers were sent to capture the position but had received erronious information seriously underestimating the strenth of the Jordanian force at the position. Made up of bunkers and trenches the paratroopers fought a tough battle in which they conquered the position, enabling Israeli forces to liberate the Old City, though the force lost 37 soldiers.

"It was then the morning of the second day of the war in Jerusalem. The horizon paled in the east. We were at the climax of the battle on Ammunition Hill. We'd been fighting there for three hours. A fierce battle was under way. Fatal. The Jordanians fought stubbornly. It was a position fortified in an exceptional manner. At a certain point in the fight there remained next to me only four soldiers. We went up there with a force of two platoons. I didn't know where the others were because the connection with Dudik, the platoon commander, was cut off still at the beginning of the battle. At that moment I thought that everyone had been killed."

At two, two-thirty
We entered through the stoney terrain
To the field of fire and mines
Of Ammunition Hill

Against bunkers which were fortified
And 120mm mortars
A hundred and some boys
On Ammunition Hill

The pillar of dawn had not yet risen
Half a platoon lay in blood
But we were already there at least
On Ammunition Hill

Among the walls and the mines
We left only the medics
And we ran ahead without our senses
Towards Ammunition Hill

"At that same moment a grenade was thrown from outside. Miraculously we weren't hit. I was afraid the Jordanians would throw more grenades. Someone had to run from above and cover. I didn't have time to ask who would volunteer. I sent Eitan. Eitan didn't hesitate for a moment. He climbed up and began to fire his machine gun. Sometimes he would overtake me and I'd have to yell to him to remain in line with me. That's how we crossed some 30 meters. Eitan would cover from above and we would clear the bunkers from within, until he was hit in the head and fell inside."

We went down into the trenches
Into the pits and channels
And towards the death in the tunnels
Of Ammunition Hill

And no one asked where to
Whoever went first fell
One needed lots of luck
On Ammunition Hill

Whoever fell was dragged to the back
In order not to disrupt the movement forward
Until fell the next in line
On Ammunition Hill

Perhaps we were lions
But whoever wanted still to live
Should not have been
On Ammunition Hill

"We decided to try blowing up their bunker with a bazooka. The bazooka made a few scratches in the concrete. We decided to try with explosive material. I waited above them until the guy came back with the explosives. He would throw me package after package, and I would lay them one by one at the entrance of their bunker. They had a system of their own: first they threw a grenade, afterwards they fired a volley, and then they rested. Between volley and grenade, I would approach the entrance of their bunker and place the explosives. I triggered the explosives and moved away as far as I could. I had four meters in which to move because also behind me were [Arab] Legionnaires. I don't know why I received a commendation, I simply wanted to get home safely."

At seven, seven-twenty
To the police school
Were gathered all those who remained
From Ammunition Hill

Smoke arose from the hill
The sun in the east rose higher
We returned to the city, seven
From Ammunition Hill

We returned to the city, seven
Smoke arose from the hill
The sun in the east rose higher
On Ammunition Hill

On fortified bunkers
And on our brothers, men
Who remained there aged 20
On Ammunition Hill

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Song Title: Halfon Hill is Not Replying ("Giv'at Khalfon Aina Onah")
Performer: The Pale Scout Trio ("HaGashash HaChiver")
Year Released: 1976
Credits: lyrics by Asi Dayan; music by Naftaly Alter
Comments: The soundtrack of what is probably the most popular Israeli comedy film which went by the same name. The film came out 2 years after the surprise Yom Kippur War and a year before the fall of the Labor Party after 29 years in power. In the wake of the shock after the war the film poked fun at the military establishment which many felt had suffered from overweening pride prior to the war and failed to prepare for it, poked fun at the UN, and lampooned the reserve service on whom the outcome of the war depended, although the jokes have since been absorbed into popular culture. The three members of the comedy trio began their careers in the Nachal brigade band. Asi Dayan, an actor and director - and the lyricist here - is incidentally also the son of Moshe Dayan, the former Chief of Staff and Defense Minister.

If your life is pillage and ruin
If your nerves are inflamed
Then climb rightaway onboard a 'special' [minibus/taxi line]
And come down to miluim [the reserves]

If your pulse is going wild
And the blood pressure is taking off
Then take a homeland-holiday
And fly off to miluim

Tzahal, Tzahal, we're on the way
Run finally, finally to miluim
And if to us they call -
from the bank or the taxes
Then please pass on in a relaxed voice
"Halfon Hill is not replying"

The wife at six goes to sleep
Between the creme and the blankets
So gave a farewell hug to the [hair] curlers
And come down to miluim

And apart from that, if you're not yet broken
And you still believe
That "Hatikvah" ['The Hope' - the national anthem] is not just a song
And come down immediately to miluim

Tzahal, Tzahal, we're on the way
Run finally, finally to miluim
And if to us they call -
from the bank or the taxes
Then please pass on in a relaxed voice
"Halfon Hill is not replying"

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Song Title: Flowers in the [Rifle] Barrel ("Prakhim Ba'Kaneh")
Performer: The Artillery Corps Band (soloist: Yehudit Shwartz)
Video: The Artillery Corps Band (Yehudit Shwartz? with glum-looking soldiers)
Year Released: 1968
Credits: words by Dudu Barak; music by Effie Netzer
Comments:

When the spring goes to sleep, the pallor is aroused
On the fields of fire the last battle will end
And a wonderful morning from the valley to the hill
Then will rise in music and joy

The sun will stand still between Gaza and Rafah
The moon will whiten the peak of the Hermon [mountain]
Flowers in the barrel and girls in the turret
Will return to the city the soldiers in mass

A single little girl with laurels in her hand
To the white city [Tel Aviv] will set out in songs
And on a flattered soldier will put a yellow-weed in the lapel
And the skies are so clear

The sun will stand still between Gaza and Rafah
The moon will whiten the peak of the Hermon
Flowers in the barrel and girls in the turret
Will return to the city the soldiers in mass

The soldiers to the city will arrive as a large crowd
With young girls and song, with golden flowers
And all which knew grief and mourning
Will no longer know fall [of autumn leaves] and battle

The sun will stand still between Gaza and Rafah
The moon will whiten the peak of the Hermon
Flowers in the barrel and girls in the turret
Will return to the city the soldiers in mass

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Song Title: In Sayeret Shaked ("Beh Sayeret Shaked")
Musician: The Southern Command Variety Ensemble
Video: From the 1972 program "From the South Will Come Good Tidings"
Year Released: 1970
Credits: words by Dahlia Rabikovich; music by Rafi Ben-Moshe
Comments: "Sayeret" in Hebrew means 'reconnaisance unit' though it usually synonymous with "special force"; the "Shaked" unit (pronounced "shah-ked", it means "almond") was formed in 1955 as the "special force" for Southern Command (Sayeret 'Egoz' [means "nut"] was Northern Command's special force, and Sayeret 'Kharuv' [means "carob"] served Central Command) and existed until 1974. Shaked was a small force made up of volunteers, charged with protecting Israel's southern frontiers, and served along the Suez, in Gaza, the Negev and Jordan Valley. The Southern Command's band was formed in 1967, after the Six-Day War. Impressed with the troupe's performance in 1970, the Command's commander, Ariel Sharon, wrote in his greetings, "I don't see the band as the jam accompaniment to the bread, but rather as the bread itself". Matti Caspi, a very popular singer, musician and lyricist (with a baritone voice), was a member of this band during his compulsory service and is among the performers in this song. The song was originally called "Sayeret Shaket" ('shaket' meaning "quiet") under pressure from the military censor in order to keep the formation's name a secret, and is still often published under this name.

In Sayeret Shaked
They turn on at nights a strong light in the command room
And every eye in the light is gleaming
And for whomever there is nothing to do at night
Enters and sits there until past midnight

On the northern sector, in Sayeret Shaked
The face of a youth and this is the commander

In Sayeret Shaked
There's an old car that turned into a club
With quiet light in orange, green and red
And for whomever there is nothing to do at night
Hammers nails and pastes pictures

On the northern sector, in Sayeret Shaked
The face of a youth and this is the commander

In Sayeret Shaked
There go out every day three scouts to the envoys of the [command] center
And in the evening you see them returning
And there isn't one there that didn't tread on a mine
On one of those days in the paths of fire

On the northern sector, in Sayeret Shaked
The face of a youth and this is the commander

In Sayeret Shaked
They go out to reconnoiter even before sunrise, while the sand is fluttering
And return only after night-fall
And the comrades they lost in the dusty paths
They keep in their hearts from every watch

On the northern sector, in Sayeret Shaked
The face of a youth and this is the commander

On the northern sector, in Sayeret Shaked
The face of a youth and this is the commander

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Song Title: Seashores ("Khofim Hem Lifamim")
Musician: The Nachal Spirit Team
Video: The Nachal Spirit Team featuring Yardena Arazi on lead vocals
Year Released:
Credits: lyrics by Natan Yonatan; music by Nachum Haimann
Comments:

Sea shores are sometimes longings for the stream
I saw once a shore that the streams left
With a broken heart of sand and stone
And Man, and Man
He sometimes can also remain
Deserted and without strength
Just like the shore

Even the sea shells, like the shore, like the win
Also shells are sometimes longings
For home which we always loved
Which was, and just the sea
Sings alone there its songs
Like between the shells of the heart of Man
Sings his adolescence

Sea shores are sometimes longings for the stream
I saw once a shore that the streams left
With a broken heart of sand and stone
And Man, and Man
He sometimes can also remain
Deserted and without strength
Just like the shore

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Song Title: Serenity ("Shalvah")
Musician: The Nachal Brigade Band (soloist: Ofira Gluska)
Year Released:
Credits: lyrics by Avi Koren; music by Yair Rosenblum
Comments:

On the camp alit the moon
On the encampment a star shines
And time, like a gummy [rubberband], spreads out
A Saturday night without desire [a taste for] and without smell
And the quiet, the heart it tears

What a serenity, and there's nothing to do
What a quietude and another week has passed

The sabbath is absolutely not passing
We've already read the evening paper
We sang already songs of swords and scythes
We've already stitched up the hole in the sock
And we solved crosswords without limit

What a serenity, and there's nothing to do
What a quietude and another week has passed

Not a single letter from you has arrived yet
In a little while the commander will appear
And surely will return and promise
That soon to regularity I will return
That you will buy two [seats] in the audience

What a serenity, and there's nothing to do
What a quietude and another week has passed

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Song Title: On Hot Summer Nights ("Beh Leilot Ha'Kaitz Ha'Khamim")
Musician: The Artillery Corps Spirit Team (soloist: Mali Brunstein)
Video: The Artillery Corps Spirit Team (soloist: Mali Brunstein)
Year Released: 1978
Credits: lyrics by Danny Minster; music by Matti Caspi
Comments: Though performed separately by Matti Caspi on an album of his own (and featured here in our music room), this song was originally written for the Artillery Corps Spirit Team, and Caspi filled in for the drummer who didn't arrive on the day of the song's recording. The soloist, Mali Brunstein, recounts that Caspi wrote songs for the Spirit Team as part of his annual reserve service ("miluim"), and prepared the music for this piece in it's style in particular at her request - it was originally written with a jazz/blues tone.

On hot summer nights
Nothing happens
Perhaps a fading star peeps
Through an open window
Perhaps a cricket is heard from far away
But even the clock doesn't tick
On hot summer nights
Nothing happens

Perhaps a cricket is heard from far away
But even the clock doesn't tick
On hot summer nights
Nothing happens

Underneath the mulberry tree in the village
People sit and talk
The read a book with an old smell
Close their eyes and go silent
Nothing else happens
On hot summer nights
Underneath the mulberry tree in the village
People sit and talk

Nothing else happens
On hot summer nights
Underneath the mulberry tree in the village
People sit and talk

Nothing else happens
Nothing else happens

Underneath the mulberry tree in the village
People sit and talk
The read a book with an old smell
Close their eyes and go silent
Nothing else happens
On hot summer nights
Underneath the mulberry tree in the village
People sit and talk

Nothing else happens
On hot summer nights
Underneath the mulberry tree in the village
People sit and talk

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Song Title: The Settlements of the 'Nachal' in Sinai ("Ha'Akhazot Ha'Nakhal Beh Sinai")
Musician: The Nachal Brigade Band
Year Released:
Credits: lyrics by Nomi Shemer; music by Yair Rosenblum
Comments: The "Nachal" brigade has been mentioned on these pages many times but not formally introduced to the reader: the "Nachal" formation is named after the abbreviation of the Hebrew letters for "Noar Khalutzi Lokhem" (meaning "Fighting Pioneer Youth"; the word "nachal" when not formed from an abbreviation also means "brook" or "stream" in Hebrew), and the unit draws its roots from the early days of the State, when elements of the Zionist youth movement asked the Defense Minister (David Ben Gurion, also the Prime Minister) to create a a unit within the military which would promote development of the land within the framework of the defense establishment - a sucessor to the pre-State "Palmach" formation and ideology. In late 1948 the Palmach was integrated into the IDF and in September 1949 the "Nachal" Brigade was established. Within its framework, members would serve a compulsory term (now three years), combining military duties with social / Zionist-related activities, such as establishing new settlements (not necessarily in "occupied" territories), cultivating the land, developing neighborhoods, and assisting with social welfare initiatives. The Nachal brigade includes infantry, paratrooper and special forces units - as well as a special battalion serving the needs of religious Jewish soldiers (called the "Nachal Ha'Kharedi").

In the settlements of the 'Nachal' in Sinai
Many beautiful things saw my eyes

[more words to come; still looking for the lyrics]

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Song Title: The Third Mother ("Ha'Em Ha'Shlisheet")
Musician: The Female Armoured Corps Recruits Band
Year Released:
Credits: lyrics by Natan Alterman; music by Yair Rosenblum
Comments:

Mothers sing, mothers sing
A fist of thunder melts, a strong silence
In the empty squares marched lines
Torches with red beards

A fatal autumn, autumn will arrive and not console
And a torrent without end or beginning
And without a candle on the window sill, and without light in the world
Sing mothers three

And one says "I saw him now
I will kiss his every finger and nail
A ship wanders on the silent sea
And my son is on the head of the mast"

And says a second [mother] "my son is big and quiet
And I'm here him sewing a holiday nightgown
He's walking in the fields, he will come to here
He bears in his heart a lead bullet"

And the third mother, her eyes lost
"I had no one dearer than him
How can it be that there's haziness around him and I don't see
I don't know where he is"

So her cries wash her eyelashes
And perhaps he's not yet resting, and perhaps
He measures in kisses, like a dispatched Nazirite
The course of your world, my Lord

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Song Title: The Song of Peace ("Shir Ha'Shalom")
Musician: The Nachal Brigade Band (soloist: Miri Aloni)
Year Released: 1969
Credits: lyrics by Ya'akov Rotblit; music by Yair Rosenblum
Comments: Written during the "summer of love" in 1969 by Ya'akov Rotblit, the band's musical director, Yair Rosenblum, inspired by the musical "Hair", instilled a rock sound into the song making it the first of the IDF bands with such a style. The song was performed within the framework of the band's program of that year, called "The Settlements of 'Nachal' in Sinai", and was received with a mixture of reactions. Some, mourning lost relatives, objected to the lines of the fifth verse, calling for people to not look back and leave the dead in peace, feeling that it compelled them to forget or minimize their scarifices. And in light of the IDF's recent victory in the 1967 6-Day War, the song's conciliatory tones drew the ire of the then chief of Central Command, Rekhavam Ze'evi [former Member of Knesset and government minister, murdered in 2001 by terrorists], who tried to ban the playing of the song altogether. The poignant moment of this song's presence in our popular culture came on the eve of 4 November 1995, when at a rally for peace (under the Oslo Accords), on a stage before a crowd of around a hundred thousand in Tel Aviv's municipal square, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin sang the song together with his former political rival, Shimon Peres, and the original soloist Miri Aloni and other government ministers; moments after Rabin was assassinated.

photo: Newsweek; 13 Nov. 1995, p. 43
Let the sun arise
the morning alight
The purest of prayers
will not bring us back

He whose candle was snuffed out
who is buried in the earth
bitter cries will not awake,
will not return him to here

No one will return us
from a dark underground pit
Here won't be useful not the joy of victory
nor the songs of praise

Therefore just sing a song for peace
Don't utter a prayer
Better that you sing a song for peace
with a great shout

Let the sun penetrate
through the flowers
Don't look back
Let rest those who have departed

Bear your eyes with hope
not through [gun] sights
Sing a song for love
and not for wars

Don't say "a day will come"
Bring the day itself
Because a dream it is not
And in all the squares they will applaud only peace

Therefore just sing a song for peace
Don't utter a prayer
Better that you sing a song for peace
with a great shout

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