Be Silent
Singer: Ivry Lider
Lyrics: Rachel Shapira
Music: Yehuda Poliker
Conductor: Guy Feder
Arrangement: Ilan Mochiach
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“Be Silent” by Rachel Shapira, performed by Riki Gal, became a hymn to strength in weakness, with lines such as “Be silent / as if you are flawless / as if the air protects you.” This tormented poem underwent many changes and overcame obstacles before finally achieving its place in the pantheon of Israeli music.
Rachel Shapira relayed that the song was based on her childhood on Kibbutz Shefayim. She told of her difficulty in finding a place on the Kibbutz, as a pensive youth in a society that demanded physical strength and hard work. She wrote “Be Silent” years later, as an adult. She saw a sandbox and wrote in the sand the line, “Out of the ashes blooms a rose,” which was the basis for the entire poem.
“Be Silent” is a song about self-healing, or about the possibility of hope. A song of a mature woman who turns to the child that she was, and calms her, by saying that today’s problems will become tomorrow’s consolations and achievements. Rachel Shapira defines the power of the word and of art, “As if all troubles crystallize into beauty.” Is there any better definition of poetry?
The exposed, vulnerable, sad and optimistic song became one of the most identified with Rachel Shapira, with Riki Gal who originally performed it to music by Yehuda Poliker.
We invite you to listen to Ivry Lider’s new rendition of this wonderful song, accompanied by the Israel Philharmonic.
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Be silent, everything is all right now
Even the lump in your throat is about to loosen
This is not hell, and certainly not heaven
It is the world we have, and there is no other.
Be silent as if you are flawless
As if the air provides you protection
As if all the troubles crystallize into beauty
As if a rose blooms out of the ashes.
Be silent as if you have never passed
As if you were never a dissonance in the well kept view
As if you have seen a hand inside the fist of fury
As if the beam of light has found you.
Be silent as if you are flawless
As if the air provides you protection
As if all the troubles crystallize into beauty
As if a rose blooms out of the ashes.
And be silent, how much can you flatten
Vulnerability without fearing humiliation
It’s as if vulnerability itself is some kind of power
As if the calm is the shore of fright.
Be silent as if you are flawless
As if the air provides you protection
As if all the troubles crystallize into beauty
As if a rose blooms out of the ashes.
Be silent as if you are flawless
As if the air now provides you protection
As if all the troubles crystallize into beauty
As if a rose blooms out of the ashes.
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