Playing Poetry - Maya Belsitzman sings An Evening Opposite the Gilead By Lea Goldberg

An Evening Opposite the Gilead
Singer: Maya Belsitzman
Lyrics: Lea Goldberg
Music: Miki Gavrielov
Conductor: Guy Feder
Arrangement: Ilan Mochiach

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An Evening Opposite the Gilead: Playing Poetry with Maya Belsitzman, commemorating Lea Goldberg’s 111th birthday.
“An evening across from the Gilead” by Lea Goldberg, one of the most beloved Hebrew lullabies, has been arranged for numerous performers (Arik Einstein, Arik Sinai and others). The poem is dedicated to the children of Kibbutz Afikim, whom Goldberg met when she was invited to lecture at the Kibbutz in 1938. This was a popular gig for the “poorer” artists.

Many assume that the song is a subversive criticism of the communal children’s houses of the kibbutz. It was first published in the socialist newspaper Davar for Children, and tells of a black lamb that has lost its way, its mother “bleating and crying in the pen” until they reunite.
Making a connection between the lyrics of the poem and the communal accommodation in the kibbutz was common, though not really valid. Some claim that the connection is anachronistic, since criticism of the communal idea in general, and of communal accommodation specifically, belongs to a later period.

In her visits to the Kibbutz, Lea Goldberg fell in love with Kibbutz member Joseph Ofin. In an unsent letter to him, she wrote, “I have lived for many years with this wall of solitude around me. Why does it suddenly seem like someone has come and taken it down?” Was her love requited? Is “An Evening across from the Gilead” a political text that was ahead of its time? We shall probably never know. But the mystery only adds to this enigmatic and beautiful song.

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The trees are so heavy,
The fruit has bent the boughs,
This is the soothing hour,
When the children fall asleep.

To the valley from the Gilead
A black and young lamb came down,
A sheep in the pen bleats and cries –
That is her young kid that was lost.


The lamb will return to its mother,
It will lie in the pen and fall asleep
And the sheep shall kiss it
And will call it by its name.

The night hides between the boughs
And the prophet from the Gilead
Comes down silently to the valley
To watch the sleeping children.

The lamb will return…

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