עתה נצא למלחמה | 'Ata netse la-milhama | Now let's go to war (1912)
Artist: Abraham Zvi Idelsohn (1882-1938)
Lyrics: From Ha-Zamir
Tune: Foreign Melody
This text was published in Ha-Zamir (Odessa, 1903: p. 12) as a children's play song, with instructions for marching in two rows and facing each other. Idelsohn included the song in the "folksong" section of Sefer Ha-Shirim, without the instructions. Another melody to the song was published in Ta'amey Zimra Le Shire-Ha'Zami, written by Pinchas Minkowski (Warsaw 1904: p. 3).
In “'Ata netse la-milhama”, children play at war. They march until their leader orders them to shoot, and they stop shooting only when they are ordered to make peace. Shaking each other’s hands, then, they walk to the right and to the left.
The melody, whose source is unidentified, is in a major key.
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