Ha'or BaKatze by Arik Einstein: meaning, lyrics and vocabulary

What the title means

אור (or) is 'light' and קצה (katzeh) is 'end' or 'edge', so האור בקצה is 'the light at the end' — the Hebrew equivalent of the light at the end of the tunnel. In the song it appears three times, and each time it behaves differently: it turns to darkness, it flickers (מפרפר), it blinks (מהבהב).

The story inside the lyrics

The singer admits he is sometimes terrified of his own shadow, then turns to a young woman who, like everyone, has lost her way: search for light in the dark, grow up, change, grow old and you will see. The chorus is the answer — candles go out and winds blow all night, but they cannot extinguish the light that rises in the morning. The line 'התשובה עוד נישאת ברוח' openly echoes Bob Dylan's 'Blowin' in the Wind'.

Vocabulary from the song

• אור or — light
• קצה katzeh — end, edge
• חושך choshech — darkness
• נרות nerot — candles
• להדליק lehadlik — to light, to turn on
• לכבות lechabot — to put out, to turn off
• רוח ruach — wind, spirit
• צל tzel — shadow
• תשובה teshuva — answer
• בוקר boker — morning

Who was Arik Einstein?

Arik Einstein (1939–2013) is the central voice of Israeli rock. With Shalom Hanoch he recorded 'Shablul' (1970), the album that pulled Hebrew song into rock, and he later recorded hundreds of songs Israelis treat as a family album. From the late 1980s he stopped performing live altogether and worked only in the studio, often with younger writers such as Yehuda Poliker.

Practise it on Shir-ly

On Shir-ly the song runs with karaoke-synced lyrics, nikud, transliteration and line-by-line translation, plus games built from its own words — fill the blanks, scrambled line, prepositions, verb conjugation and everyday sentences.

Continue with Lu Yehi and Hareut for more Hebrew about hope and memory.

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