An Evening of Song

ראש חודש טבת, תשס״ו

This past Thursday night, I went to an erev shira, an evening of singing. This is a traditional Israeli social event which dates, I believe, back to the early pioneer days of singing ‘round a fire in a new settlement. I was invited by an Israeli friend from my time on kibbutz; she was one of the organizers. It was held in someone’s apartment in the neighborhood of Katamon, which is fairly renowned for its population of 30-something singles. It was called for 8:30, so when I got there at quarter to 10 I was hoping to catch some of the singing before it disintegrated to shmoozing and eating. Ha! They didn’t actually start singing until at least 11, and when I commented that they were definitely working on Jewish time, I was informed with a chuckle that Katamon time was on a level beyond that, and that ervei shira in particular followed a clock all their own. OK…

When they did finally start, there was still much chatting. After several pleas from my friend for the talkers to at least move back to the corners of the room, she finally gave up to the current and called a recess for socializing. A bit later, they started up again, and the singing got strong.

The interesting part is that despite not knowing anyone in the room besides my one friend and her brother, and not having ever heard the vast majority of the songs (I was expecting the super-oldie classics, but apparently there’s a whole generation of classics that I missed)…I actually quite enjoyed the evening. It was a nice atmosphere, nice people, nice music, and what’s more, I really appreciated being in an environment where amateur singing was the point, where it wasn’t just a corny thing that a few people were doing for a few minutes and then giggling at themselves. There’s something less pretentious about Israelis that makes that more commonly possible, I guess…