Let My People Go!

Nisan, the month of our liberation

Actu­al­ly, the com­plete phrase is “Let My peo­ple go… that they may serve Me.” from Exo­dus 5:1.

It is inter­est­ing how the phrase has been used (and abused).

Exodus and Liberation

When you check the phrase in the Wikipedia you learn not only, what you had know as a child, that the phrase had been used as a “Negro Spir­i­tu­al”, but that

A Hebrew trans­la­tion of the song is a com­mon ele­ment in the Passover seder in Israel.

Jay reports that there is a Hebrew trans­la­tion, though he does not know how pop­u­lar or well-known it is. On Kib­butz Hat­zor it is sung every year. He admits that the first time he heard it he found it very strange, but after years of hear­ing, and singing, it, it seems quite nat­ur­al.
the refrain is
!שלח נא את עמי 

ביצוע: עממי
מילים ולחן: עממי
:מהר, משה צווה פרעה
שלח נא את עמי!
מיצוות האל אמור נא לו:
שלח נא את עמי!
קומה, לך נא
אל כבד הלב הרע,
צו לו בשמי:
שלח נא את עמי.

מסר משה את דבר שדי

שלח נא את עמי!
ולא אכך במכותי
שלח נא את עמי!
שמע נא זאת היא
מיצוות האל
הבה שלח נא
את ישראל.

הגיע ישראל לים

שלח נא את עמי!
טבעו מצריים עם ריכבם
שלח נא את עמי!
זה הוא
כבד הלב ההוא
ככה כן
תמיד יאבדו.

שלח נא את עמי!
מיצוות האל אמור נא לו:
שלח נא את עמי!
קומה, לך נא
אל כבד הלב הרע,
צו לו בשמי:
שלח נא את עמי.

מסר משה את דבר שדי

שלח נא את עמי!
ולא אכך במכותי
שלח נא את עמי!
שמע נא זאת היא
מיצוות האל
הבה שלח נא
את ישראל.

הגיע ישראל לים

שלח נא את עמי!
טבעו מצריים עם ריכבם
שלח נא את עמי!
זה הוא
כבד הלב ההוא
ככה כן
תמיד יאבדו 

Relat­ed to this is an anec­dote I have been try­ing to track down:

A “Negro” spir­i­tu­al (or escape from slav­ery song) that uses bib­li­cal imagery designed to show the way north and out of slav­ery was sup­pos­ed­ly used by the kib­butzniks help­ing the ma’apil­im know where to land their boats. I think I “learned” this at Habon­im camp in the ear­ly 1960s, but have not been able to ver­i­fy it. The gen­er­a­tion that might have done this is quick­ly dying off.

If any­one has any infor­ma­tion regard­ing this please let me know.

The Civil Rights Movement

I recall a but­ton of black and white hands clasped in a six-point­ed star with the words Let My Peo­ple Go around the perime­ter. How­ev­er, this but­ton is not where I can make a scan to share here.

The Soviet Jewry Movement

In an explic­it­ly Jew­ish con­text, the phrase was used by the Stu­dent Strug­gle for Sovi­et Jew­ry on its lapel but­tons to call atten­tion to the plight of Jews in the Sovi­et Union. A num­ber of vari­ants appeared.

Date: ≅ 1970
Size: 5.3 cm
Pin Form: safe­ty
Print Method: cel­lu­loid

Juda­ic Lapel Buttons


© Mark Hurvitz

Orig­i­nal­ly Post­ed 26 March, 2009 (Rosh Ḥos­desh Nisan, 5769)

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