One of my columns on this website concerns my teacher of blessed memory, Abraham Zevi Idelsohn, but it does not mention a little song that became his best known accomplishment. During Idelsohn’s years of field research in pre-World War I Jerusalem, one of the communities he visited was a group of Hasidim from as Eastern European town called Sadigura. There he learned a tune that was a favorite of their Rebbe’s, a melody that a faithful follower once brought with him from the Ukraine. He had risked his life to cross the border and knew he would not be able to go back; the Czar’s soldiers would see to that; but when his Rebbe invited him to contribute a “nigun” — a tune — to the Rebbe’s table, the honor made it all worthwhile. Just picture the young man standing up, sliding his skullcap forward on his head and closing his eyes to begin a wordless solo — ”Bim bom, bidi bim bom, bim bom, bidi bim bom… ” Miracle of miracles, the Rebbe liked the tune! Soon he started singing along. The other Hasidim joined in. It became a favorite “court song” in Sadigura.Idelsohn filed the tune among his other musical discoveries. Soon after that he was drafted into the Turkish Army, and spent the rest of the war conducting a Turkish Army band in the trenches in Gaza. In the evenings, he had to entertain the Turkish officers with German “lieder.” Well, with his help Turkey lost the war. By 1919, they were out, the British were in, and a Balfour Declaration was promising a Jewish homeland. Once again Idelsohn was back in Jerusalem.He was conducting a chorus, and preparing a victory concert. He needed a good crowd-pleasing number for a finale and he didn’t have one. But he had a file. Guided by destiny, he picked out the Sadigura nigun. He arranged it for his chorus, and wrote some simple Hebrew lyrics: ”Come and rejoice, wake brothers with a happy heart!” Better known by its Hebrew name — HAVA NAGILA! By Idelsohn’s own account, the concert made the song an immediate hit, with people throughout Jerusalem singing it the next day, and all over the country within a short time.Today, nearly a century later, it remains the best known Hebrew song in the world, a joyful sound that was later combined with an imported Romanian folkdance called the Hora, and resounds at every Jewish wedding and bar mitzvah — not to mention in elevators and at ball parks — recorded by countless performers. Only many years after Idelsohn’s death did his family receive some royalties for it from the Israeli Government. True to his nature, Idelsohn himself never sought profit from Hava Nagila. He found it, improved it, and humbly returned it to his people — a true musical blessing.##