"Barek brik alḥama" (The lightning of our protection shone forth)

A poem in Arabic by Yosef ben Israel, signed Ben Israel. The poem has eight stanzas, cach of which contains four verses of two hemistiches, a tawshiḥ of three verses and another two verses of two hemistiches. The poem is an admonition to the soul.

This recording features Shalom Keisar and the Kiryat Ono men and children's ensemble sing the first three stanzas of the shira, which is the central part of the sequence nahid- shira-hallel. While the recording was being made two men danced to the music of the shira. The dancers and singers spurred each other on, and coordinated the singing and dancing in the course of their performance; as a result, one can hear that the tempo is speeded up and the volume increased at certain points. Drum and tin pan accompany the singing. The meter is generally triple, but in the middle there is a natural transition to a performance of the same melody in a duple meter (Bahat, 1995: 88-90). The blessing Vekulkhem berukhim leads on to a hallel sung by all the performers together.