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Aish Tamid Lyrics
The place lays phased like a warrior slayed
Engraved into the space with his sword still raised
Layers of charcoal sprayed through hallways
Praise relays off the walls echoing all ways
Dirt covered earth lays beneath my rib cage
Giving birth to overgrowth invading on to path ways
Burnt out trees cover streets where children once played
Sown seeds decay through sacred stepping stones in disarray
Where the alter used to be placed inter-changed for bloodstains
Sunrays illuminate the smoke filled haze
Trace of incense scents of sacrifice stayed
Chorus:
Aish tamid eternally
A fire burns continuously
Wondering where you been
Won't you come on home to me?
Flash back patches of grass growing wild in fact
Cracked walls burnt black like a kingdom sacked
Memories like artifacts attacked yet still intact
Melodies wrapped in glass and shatter with the impact
Air intermingling ringing with the singing
of songs once sung, hung, flung into the rafters
Catastrophe struck the sound stuck
Disaster plastered
The aftermath a blasted building once standing, like a starved man fasting
the skies expanding clouds passing, dust particles dancing,
in broken bars of light, streaming from a shaft, slashed into the ceiling,
Sshhhh, you could feel the ground breathing.
Chorus
Daughter of Zion is lying crying in the mist
Morning light slips in, shifting through the darkness
Like a morning wife reminisce having visions of her long gone prince
Memories drip rain drops tip towing emptiness
Intermixed with tears like fears left unfixed
Walls worn thin frozen fortress like dawn waiting for the sunrise of a day that got skipped
Like a life gone wrong wandering wilderness
Lovesick stripped abyss empty once luscious
Chorus
Paint the scene so you could see, the city's picking up speed
On a bench 14th street, taxi's streaming yellow streaks
Spears piercing through my ears, you could hear the traffic speak
Jack hammers drill smacking through the cracking concrete
Buildings filled with windowsills spilled tangled telephone wires
Signs sparking neon lights flash like wild fire
My insides rise I start to feel paralyzed
Let out a sigh-a melody blew by- like an ancient war cry
the way the sunlight hit the trees it really caught my eye,
glistening' listening' to the breeze dancing' through the leaves,
freeze, the city move's in slow motion like a dream
I'm left empty like the temple turned into a fox den
Bus fumes dripping spitting into city summer sun
Sifting through the ash dimly lit vision listening
To the hiss lifting off a nighttime ocean
Shim, shim, shimmering singing hair on my skin
Glim, glim. Glimmering, whispering where ya been
From amidst the darkness set sail with the softness
Breeze traveling across the seas arisen from with in Mt. Zion
Wind coming in picking up momentum
Cutting crisply through the thickness riding on a rhythm
A rollercoaster sizzling, twisting down the mountain
ripping rocket ship exploding like a fountain
overflowing spilling through the courtyards of Jerusalem
Uncovering debris lifting up the fallen arisen within
to reach the yiddin even in Manhattan
exposed menorah glowing in the shadows of destruction
trailblazing through affliction
brushing off the branches golden
standing strong flames
dancing like a lion roaring rising out of nothing
Engraved into the space with his sword still raised
Layers of charcoal sprayed through hallways
Praise relays off the walls echoing all ways
Giving birth to overgrowth invading on to path ways
Burnt out trees cover streets where children once played
Sown seeds decay through sacred stepping stones in disarray
Where the alter used to be placed inter-changed for bloodstains
Sunrays illuminate the smoke filled haze
Trace of incense scents of sacrifice stayed
Aish tamid eternally
A fire burns continuously
Wondering where you been
Won't you come on home to me?
Cracked walls burnt black like a kingdom sacked
Memories like artifacts attacked yet still intact
Melodies wrapped in glass and shatter with the impact
of songs once sung, hung, flung into the rafters
Catastrophe struck the sound stuck
Disaster plastered
The aftermath a blasted building once standing, like a starved man fasting
the skies expanding clouds passing, dust particles dancing,
in broken bars of light, streaming from a shaft, slashed into the ceiling,
Sshhhh, you could feel the ground breathing.
Morning light slips in, shifting through the darkness
Like a morning wife reminisce having visions of her long gone prince
Memories drip rain drops tip towing emptiness
Intermixed with tears like fears left unfixed
Walls worn thin frozen fortress like dawn waiting for the sunrise of a day that got skipped
Like a life gone wrong wandering wilderness
Lovesick stripped abyss empty once luscious
On a bench 14th street, taxi's streaming yellow streaks
Spears piercing through my ears, you could hear the traffic speak
Jack hammers drill smacking through the cracking concrete
Buildings filled with windowsills spilled tangled telephone wires
Signs sparking neon lights flash like wild fire
My insides rise I start to feel paralyzed
Let out a sigh-a melody blew by- like an ancient war cry
the way the sunlight hit the trees it really caught my eye,
glistening' listening' to the breeze dancing' through the leaves,
freeze, the city move's in slow motion like a dream
Bus fumes dripping spitting into city summer sun
Sifting through the ash dimly lit vision listening
To the hiss lifting off a nighttime ocean
Shim, shim, shimmering singing hair on my skin
Glim, glim. Glimmering, whispering where ya been
Breeze traveling across the seas arisen from with in Mt. Zion
Wind coming in picking up momentum
Cutting crisply through the thickness riding on a rhythm
A rollercoaster sizzling, twisting down the mountain
ripping rocket ship exploding like a fountain
overflowing spilling through the courtyards of Jerusalem
Uncovering debris lifting up the fallen arisen within
to reach the yiddin even in Manhattan
exposed menorah glowing in the shadows of destruction
trailblazing through affliction
brushing off the branches golden
standing strong flames
dancing like a lion roaring rising out of nothing
Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.
This song is absolutely brilliant. The words are put together so well and with such intellect. Beautiful promise of restoration in the end. I think the Spirit is rather well portrayed by a lion of flames roaring within the cities.
This is pretty much their best song. The lyrics are really neat and I like how he sings all his tunes. This stuff is groovy.
yeah this song is the best i absolutely love it
like dawn waiting for the sunrise of a day that got skipped
It's a metaphore about the deastruction of the third temple to the collapse of the WTC
merllin508: you mean the destruction of the second temple - the third has not yet been built ;)
It was written before the WTC so WTF are you talking about?
The aish tamid (×ש תמיד) is the eternal flame that was supposed to burn in the altar in the Jewish Tabernacle and never go out....In modern Jewish practice, the aish tamid is kept alive symbolically through daily prayer and the study of Torah.
^ Taken directly from wikipedia, in case you were wondering what aish tamid means.
I think the entire song is a metaphor for the fact that through all destruction, even if Manhattan or the entire city of New York were to be destroyed, the metaphorical flame of aish tamid will still be burning because the faith and love of HaShem will still be there. It will always be there. I absolutely love this song, and Matisyahu is just a genius.