How Shall I Bless

Eldad Krock was a young reservist in a parachute brigade who was killed in Jerusalem on Givat Hatachmoshet, Ammunition Hill, in the Six Day War; the next morning the brigade was of the forces who took the Old City and the Western Wall. The battle itself was one of the fiercest in Israel's long history of wars.

Rachel Shapira had been in his class at school, at Kibbutz Shfayim, where they both grew up. She wrote a poem commemorating him and inserted it in the kibbutz internal news sheet.

Yair Rosenblum was staying at the Shefayim guesthouse, and came across the poem. He set it to music, and gave it to the Navy Band with which he was working at the time (1969).

The recording was the first major exposure of the soloist, Rivka Zohar.

Ma Avarech, How Shall I Bless Him, is one of the most important shirim ever, and will undoubtedly remain so until some future generation of Israelis forgets we were once at war.

I'm offering a 1969 version with the Navy Band, and a recent recording by Amir Benayun, who turns it into a sepharidi prayer.

Hebrew words
English translation
What blessings can I give this child, what can he be blessed with?
Asked the angel
What blessings can I give this child, what can he be blessed with?
Asked the angel

And he blessed him with a smile, bright as light
And he blessed him with big observing eyes
With them to catch every flower, every living creature or bird
And with a heart to feel what he sees.

What blessings can I give this adolesence , what can he be blessed with?
Asked the angel
What blessings can I give this adolesence, what can he be blessed with?
Asked the angel

And he blessed him with legs to dance for ever
And a soul to remeber all tunes
And a hand to collect shells on the beach
And a ear attentive to old and young

What blessings can I give this man , what can he be blessed with?
Asked the angel
What blessings can I give this man, what can he be blessed with?
Asked the angel

And he blessed that his hands which are used to flowers
Will succed in learning the might of the steel
And his legs to dance the roads journey
And lips to sing the command pace

What blessings can I give him , what can he be blessed with?
This child this young adult
What blessings can I give him, what can he be blessed with?
This child this young adult

I gave him all I could give
A song a smile and legs to dance
And a delicate hand and a trembling heart
What else can I bless you with?

This boy is now an angel
No one will bless him, he will never be blessed
God God God
If only you blessed him with life.