II. How she sits alone

Mezzo soloist
(in Hebrew)

Eichah yashva badad

How she sits alone,

Chorus

ha’ir rabati am

the city once great with people.

Mezzo soloist
(in English)

Lamentations 1:1, 1:2 (parts)

Eichah yashva badad 
ha’ir rabati am
Haitah ke almanah 
Bacho tivkeh balailah 
ve dimatah al lecheilah

How she sits alone,
the city once great with people. 
She has become like a widow. 
She weeps on through the night, 
and her tears are on her cheek.

Chorus

Lam. 1:4 (part)

Darchei Tsion avelot
mi b’li ba’ei moed
kol sh’areiha shomeimin.

The roads of Zion mourn 
without festival pilgrims. 
All her gates are desolate.

Soprano soloist

Lam. 1:6 (part)

Ve yetsei mi bat Tsion 
kol hadarah.
Hayu sareiha k’ayalim 
Lo matzu mireh.

And from Zion’s Daughter is departed 
all her glory.
Her nobles have become like stags 
that find no pasture.

Chorus

Lam. 5:1, 5:9, 5:14

Zachor Adonai me hayah lanu 
Habita ur’ei et cherpateinu. Be-nafsheinu navi lachmeinu 
mi-penei cherev hamidbar 
Zekenim mi-sha’ar shavatu 
bachurim mi-neginatam

Recall, O Lord, what befell us, 
Look and see our disgrace.
At the cost of our lives we got bread 
because of the desert sword.
Elders were no more in the gates, 
nor young men at their songs.

Baritone soloist

Lam. 2:13

Ma aidech ma adameilach 
Habat Yerushalayim?
Ma ashveilach va’anachamech 
Betulat bat Tsion?
Ki gadol ka yam shivrech.
Mi yirpalach?

How can I bear witness for you, what can I liken to you, 
O Daughter of Jerusalem?
What can I compare to you and console you,
O Virgin, Zion’s Daughter?
For great as the sea is your breaking. 
Who can heal you?

Chorus

Lam. 5:18

Al har Tsion sheshamem 
Shualim hilechu vo.

On Mount Zion which is desolate 
foxes go about.

III. The words of Qohelet

III. The words of QoheleT

Chorus

Qohelet [Ecclesiastes] 1:1, 1:2, 1:14

Divrei Kohelet ben David 
melech be-Yerushalayim 
Havel havalim, havel havalim 
hakol hevel u re’ut ruach

The words of Qohelet son of David, 
king in Jerusalem.
Merest breath, merest breath,
all is mere breath and herding the wind

Baritone soloist

Qohelet 1:3, 1:14

Mah yitron la-’adam be kol amalo sheh-yaamol tachat ha-shamesh
Ra’iti et kol ha’amasim
sheh-na’asu tachat ha-shamesh
ve hineh hakol hevel u re’ut ruach.

What gain is there for man in all his toil that he toils under the sun?
I have seen all the deeds
that are done under the sun,
and behold, all is mere breath and herding the wind.

Chorus

Ve hineh hakol hevel u re’ut ruach

And behold, all is mere breath and herding the wind.

Baritone soloist

Qohelet 1:17

Ve etnah libi va’adat chochmah
ve da’at holelot ve sichlut
yadati sheh gam zeh hu raion ruach

And I set my heart to know wisdom and to know revelry and folly,
for this, too, is herding the wind.

Chorus

Gam zeh hu raion ruach

This too is herding the wind.

Baritone soloist

Qohelet 1:18

Ki be-rov chochmah rav ka’as ve yosif da’at yosif machov

For in much wisdom is much worry, and he who adds knowledge adds pain.

IV. Like foxes among the ruins

V. My God, my God

Chorus

Eli eli lamah azavtani

My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?

Soprano soloist

Psalm 22:1

Eli eli lamah azavtani
rachok mi-shuati divrei sha’agati

My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? 
Far from my rescue are the words that I roar.

Psalm 22:11, 22:20, 22:21 (parts)

Al tirchak mimeni
Ki tzara kerova
Hatzila me-cherev nafshi
Mi yad-kelev yechidati
Hoshiyeni mi pi aryeh

Do not be far from me,
For distress is near.
Save from the sword my life,
From the cur’s power my person.
Rescue me from the lion’s mouth.

VII. Look, my servant

Chorus

Isaiah 42:1

Hen ‘avdi etmochbo
Bechiri ratztah nafshi
Natati ruchi alav
Mishpat lagoyim yotzi

Look, My servant, I have stayed him up,
My chosen one, I have greatly favored.
I have set my spirit on him,
He shall bring forth justice to the nations.

Soprano/ Mezzo (duet)

Isaiah 49:4,49:8 (parts), 49:11

Ve ani amarti lerik yagati
Le tohu ve hevel kochi chileti
Koh amar Adonai:
Be’et ratzon aniticha
Uvyom yeshua azarticha
Ve samit kol harai la darech
Umsilotai yerumun.

And I had thought, “In vain have I toiled,
For naught, for mere breath, my strength have I sapped.”
Thus said the Lord:
In an hour of favor I answered you
And on a day of rescue I aided you.
And I will make all My mountains a road,
And My highways shall rise.

Chorus

Isaiah 42:6,42:16 (parts)

Ani Adonai keraticha ve-tzedek
Ve achzek be-yadeicha
Ve etzarcha ve etencha livrit ‘am le-or goyim,
Ve holachti ‘ivrim
Be-derech lo yada’u
Asim machshach lifneihem la- ’or
Uma’akashim lemishor.

I the Lord have called you in righteousness
And held your hand,
And preserved you and made you a covenant for peoples and a light of the nations,
And I will lead the blind
On a way they did not know,
I will turn darkness before them to light,
And rough ground to a level plain.

VIII. Send out your bread upon the waters

Soprano soloist

Qohelet [Ecclesiastes] 11:1

Shalach lachmeicha al penei hamayim 
ki ve rov hayamim timtza’einu

Send out your bread upon the waters, 
for in the long course of time you will find it.

Mezzo soloist

Qohelet 11:2

Ten chelek le shivah ve gam lishmonah 
ki lo teda mah yihyeh ra’a al ha’aretz

Give a share to seven and even to eight, 
for you know not what evil will be on earth.

Soli Trio

Qohelet 11:8

Ki imshanim harbeh yihyeh ha’adam 
be chulam yismach
ve yizkor et yimei hachoshech
Ki harbei yihyu.
Kol sheba havel.

Should a man live many years,
let him rejoice in all of them,
and let him recall the days of darkness, 
For they will be many.
Whatever comes is mere breath.

Trio
(in Hebrew)

Qohelet 1:1, 1:14 (reprise)

Divrei Kohelet ben David 
melech be-Yerushalayim

Havel havalim 
hakol hevel u re’ut ruach

The words of Qohelet son of David, 
king in Jerusalem.

Merest breath,
all is mere breath and herding the wind.

IX. Hear this, you elders

Soloists
(in English) echoed by chorus in Hebrew

Joel 1:2

Shimuzot ha-zekenim
ve ha’azinu kol yoshvei ha’aretz 
Hehaitah zot bimeichem
ve im bimei avoteichem?

Hear this, you elders,
and give ear, all dwellers of the land. 
Has its like happened in your days 
and in the days of your fathers?

Baritone soloist

Joel 1:3

Aleiha livneichem saperu 
uveneichem livneihem 
uveneichem le dor acher

Recount it to your children
and to your children’s children
and to their children in a generation to come.

X. Coda: Oseh Shalom

Text from the traditional Jewish prayer which ends the Mourner’s Kaddish. 
Translation Public Domain.

Chorus

Oseh shalom bimromav 
Hu ya’aseh shalom aleinu 
Ve al kol Israel
Ve al kol yoshvei tevel
Ve imru: Amein.

May the One who makes peace in the heavens 
Make peace also for us,
And for all Israel,
And for all who dwell on earth,
And let us say, Amen.