The manuscript of the original lyrics to one of the most popular, if once-controversial, songs by beloved poet, composer and songwriter Naomi Shemer, was gifted this week by her family to the National Library of Israel.

The Library holds the Naomi Shemer archive, which is one of the largest and most visited by teachers, researchers, students, and music-lovers alike.

The song “Al Kol Eleh,” also known as ” Al Hadvash Ve’al Ha’Okez” (On the Honey and the Sting), was considered for many years to be an anthem of sorts, although, in truth, it was written under tragic personal circumstances. Shemer composed the song in 1980 with the aim of comforting of her sister, Ruth “Rutik” Nussbaum, after the sudden death of her husband Avraham.

However, within a short time, the song’s meaning shifted when it was adopted by those opposing the evacuation of Israeli settlements in the Sinai Peninsula, and then, some 20 years later, by those against the disengagement from Gaza, and the opposition to vacating the West Bank settlement Amona.

Speaking at the donation event this week, Rutik’s children—Tair, Noa, Yaakov and Avshalom, together with their cousin, Shemer’s daughter, Lali— said that for many years the family’s attitude towards the song was very ambivalent as it reminded them of the loss of their father and uncle, and also because it had become politically charged.

However, Avshalom Nussbaum noted that with the passage of time, the song had once again become a personal one that connected people.

Dr. Amalia Kedem, Curator of the Music Collection at the National Library of Israel said, “Through the many arrangements, translations into different languages, recordings, and letters from the early 1980s, the archive itself tells us how quickly this song spread and how widely it was embraced in Israel and in the Jewish world. From the realm of synagogue liturgy, we know a successful melody can quickly become a tradition overnight, and this song, like all of Shemer’s writing, speaks the language of prayer. Like her other songs that have become anthems, it is at once personal and universal, and every Israeli and every Jew can find themselves in it.”

The manuscript with the lyrics for “Al Kol Eleh,” now joins thousands of other songs, notes, letters, records, and photographs in the Naomi Shemer archive. All have been scanned and made accessible, free of charge, on the Library’s website at: https://www.nli.org.il/en/discover/music/musicians/naomi-shemer