gutten vinter,” my father wished me as I departed after Simchat Torah, the last of the holidays. Back in the day, that was the traditional greeting with which one signed off the High Holiday season. The season that sometimes feels like time suspended is over, winter now at the doorstep. “Acharei ha-chagim” (“after the hollidays’) has arrived. Life is starting anew. The year has begun in earnest. A few other conclusion-like signatures that accompany me this time of year are songs from the late Israeli songwriter, Naomi Shemer. Everyone knows her enduring “Jerusalem of Gold,” “Let it Be” and a few of her other famous songs that defined the Israeli generations before me, as well as my own. Like a modern day prophet, Naomi Shemer […]
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