Saint Paul in the music of Avraham Tal

The song, entitled "Im beleshonot" (If in tongues..."), is said to be from the Epistle of Paul. The music was composed by Avraham Tal and he sings the words. Most of the songs on the new album were written by Avraham Tal himself, one of the few exceptions being this song.

The singer explained to an interviewer from “24 Musica”, Hadar Elyakim, his choice of these words:

Q. The words of the song “Im beleshonot” are taken from an epistle of Paul, what is meant by this?

A. This happened thanks to a neighbor of mine. One day she knocked on the door of my studio and showed me the texts. At that moment I read them and I was filled with joy and sang them. The text as a text fascinated me. It speaks of prophecies that love is above all else. The text actually says that even if I am a great ascetic, if I give away millions, if I speak in the tongues of angels, as long as I do not do all this from a true source, it will not help. This is a very powerful text”.

It is not common to find New Testament texts incorporated within Jewish Israeli culture and this song is thus a noteworthy exception. Perhaps, it is another indication that we are indeed slowly moving towards a new relationship between Jews and Christians in Israel too.

The text from Saint Paul is:

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast,1 but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9 For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10 but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly,1 but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.