LYRIC
AL EILEH- Sung & Composed by R’ Shlomo Carlebach Z”L- Nachamu Concert
עַל אֵלֶּה אֲנִי בוֹכִיָּה
,אֲנִי בוֹכִיָּה
עַל אֵלֶּה אֲנִי בוֹכִיָּה
אֲנִי בוֹכִיָּה
(x2)
עֵינִי עֵינִי עֵינִי
,יֹרְדָה מַּיִם
כִּי רָחַק מִמֶּנִּי
מְנַחֵם מֵשִׁיב נַפְשִׁי
(x2)
I wanna share something very deep with you, friends.
Shalom, good evening.
We’re learning all the time…
You know, to kiss somebody is so deep.
Soooo deep.
You know, in Shir Hashirim, it says יִשָּׁקֵנִי מִנְּשִׁיקוֹת פִּיהוּ,
the highest, deepest, deepest way of explaining
what happened on Mount Sinai, it says יִשָּׁקֵנִי מִנְּשִׁיקוֹת פִּיהוּ,
the רִבּוֹנוֹ שֶׁל עוֹלָם kissed us.
Why is it, when you kiss somebody, automatically, you close your eyes?
Why is it, that you have no trouble kissing children?
The saddest thing, the older we get,
it’s sometimes hard to kiss an older person.
What’s wrong with them? What’s wrong with us?
We learned it in a thousand ways, I just wanna share this with you.
Do you know, if someone were to tell you,
that I’m still crying after Reb Yishmael Cohen Gadol,
After the last high priest,
You’ll tell them, you’re crazy, it’s 2,000 years later.
If I were to tell you, could I ever stop crying after Reb Akiva?
You’ll tell me, you’re crazy, it’s 2,000 years later.
You know, I’m still crying after the people who were killed
and burned in marketplaces during the Inquisition.
It’s 800 years later.
I’m still crying after every Jew of the 6 million.
Forget it… really, you can’t live like this. Gotta forget it.
I’m still crying after every soldier who was killed in the Holy Land,
But you know what it is?
So, when I kiss somebody, I close my eyes.
You know what that means? I’m sooo close to you.
I can tell you the truth, I’m still crying.
And here, I wanna share with you something very, very deep.
Everybody knows, in Chassidus, that wherever the Torah mentions something
for the first time, this is the headquarters.
The first time we find that a person kissed another person
is Yitzchak kissing Yaakov, before he blessed him.
It’s the first time we find a father kissing his son.
The first time in the Torah we find somebody kissing a woman, his wife,
is Yaakov kissing Rochel.
And everybody knows, that the kiss which Yaakov received from Yitzchak,
he gave over to Rochel.
and it says, וַיִּשָּׂא אֶת קֹלוֹ וַיֵּבְךְּ, he began to cry. And Rashi says,
He was crying over the destruction of the Temple.
Crazy… it didn’t happen yet!!!
So, I just wanna bless you and me and all of us, you know,
the holiness of children is so much beyond time and space.
Children are so real.
Does it really matter if it happened yesterday or 2,000 years ago?
It happened.
I miss them.
We need them.
And here, this passage we were singing, it says עַל אֵלֶּה אֲנִי בוֹכִיָּה,
this is why I’m crying, and I’ll never stop crying,
because, those people who could give me back my soul are not with me…
עַל אֵלֶּה אֲנִי בוֹכִיָּה
,אֲנִי בוֹכִיָּה
עַל אֵלֶּה אֲנִי בוֹכִיָּה
אֲנִי בוֹכִיָּה
(x2)
עֵינִי עֵינִי עֵינִי
,יֹרְדָה מַּיִם
כִּי רָחַק מִמֶּנִּי
מְנַחֵם מֵשִׁיב נַפְשִׁי
(x2)