by Robbie Gringras (Makom, Haaretz)

Ahad Ha’am first brought to our attention the opposition between the Prophet and the Priest in Zionism. In more recent times the sociologist Dr Stephen M. Cohen talked about the Jewish artist as prophet or priest.

In the context of contemporary Israeli culture, it is easy for us to recognize both.  The priest creates art that unifies and celebrates. The kind of stuff we are familiar with at community Yom Ha´atzmaut events. The prophetic artist rages from the outside, angrily and painfully pointing out imperfections and disunity. 

This last week saw the release of two leading examples of these kinds of prophecy and priesthood in Israeli contemporary music. Both HaDag Nachash, and Kobi Oz, released their new discs. But of course the real joy of these two albums is the way in which they move us beyond the dichotomies, into the complexities of Israel. HaDag Nachash are too funky to be only prophets: they unify and celebrate at the same time. And Kobi Oz’ vision of Judaism and Israel is too far from reality to be only celebratory: The harmony is underlaid with critique throughout.

HaDag Nachash have always pushed a critical love of Israel’s unfulfilled potential. From the social conscience of Numbers, to their seminal adaptation of David Grossman’s arrangement of bumper stickers, The Sticker Song, to their raging re-write of Uzi Hitman’s more innocent prayer, My Lord, (I wanted you to know), the Fish Snake boys have held their line, and “ 6” is no exception.    
 
At the same time Kobi Oz emerged out of his Teapacks days, toweled himself down after soaking himself in “the rich marinade of Judaism,” and brought out the disc of the show that has been playing around the world for the last 9 months, “Mizmorei Nevuchim, Psalms for the Perplexed”.

For the entire article: 

http://makom.haaretz.com/art.asp

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