Leyl Chanaya
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Hebrew: ליל חניה (Night of Encampment; see below). Circle dance by Gadi Bitton, 2001.
The Lyrics
The lyrics of the song come from a poem by Natan Alterman, winner of the Israel Prize for literature. The poem describes the night before a battle at Iraq Al-Manshiyya, a Palestinian Arab village that was replaced by Kiryat Gat. The battle took place in October 1948 as part of Operation Yo'av. The title of the poem (often foolishly mistranslated as "Night of Parking", as though the song describes events following a senior prom) refers to the army's encampment in readiness for that battle.
Alterman had enlisted in the IDF the previous July. He was already nationally known as a poet and was 38 years old, well beyond the age of conscription. He was a private during the battle, which did not go well. According to unconfirmed legend, after the battle his commander informed Ben Gurion of Alterman's participation, and Ben Gurion had Alterman removed from active combat lest the country lose its poet.
The poem is infinitely deep and complex, a series of images subject to contrasting interpretations. It has been analyzed repeatedly and from many viewpoints. Themes include the emotions of the soldiers, the nature of war, the condition of the army, how the commander prepares the soldiers for battle, how later generations will see the war. But this barely scratches the surface; much more is to be found via the links below (mostly in Hebrew, unfortunately).
The Music
Although the poem was probably written in the 40s and was first published in the 50s, it was not set to music until the 70s. Alterman was very selective about who would set his poems to music and approached composers himself with his requests. But he died in 1970 and at that point all bets were off.
The story goes that Yehoram Gaon called Ya'ir Rozenblum, already a respected composer, early in 1973, and asked if he had a song that he could submit to that year's Festival HaZemer VeHaPizmon. Rozenblum said yes, at which point Gaon asked which song? Rozenblum grabbed a book on his desk, "Ir Yona", a 1957 book of Alterman's poems, opened it at random to page 94 and replied "Leyl Chanaya". Only afterward did he ask himself "What have I done?" The structure of the poem, five-line stanzas with irregular number of feet per line, does not lend itself easily to musical composition. But Rozenblum managed it, with some rearrangement and turning one of the verses into a refrain, and the song won fourth place in that year's competition—a few months before the Yom Kippur War.
The Dance
The dance is unremarkable; its only noteworthy feature is the occurrence of a rare step: quick R-L in place open facing center, "planting" the body. One of the very few dances in which this step appears is Tuvia Tishler's Shkia V'ruda, whose lyrics, coincidentally, are also by Alterman.
Links
Hebrew lyrics to the song
The original poem, for comparison
An article on the story of Leyl Chanaya (Hebrew)
Extensive (and argumentative) discussion of the poem (in Hebrew), by blog commenters on Alterman's website
Another article on "the story behind Leyl Chanaya"
Iraq al-Manshiyya at Wikipedia, including maps
The Israeli 200 NIS bill, on which Alterman is pictured
