Baruch Cohon Blog

The Most Popular Hebrew song — ever

Baruch — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 03:59:18 +0000

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.##

Family Values in Washington?

Baruch — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:54:37 +0000

Recent excitement about same-sex marriage becoming legal in the District of Columbia raises blood pressures on both sides of the issue. What about family values? Shouldn’t our nation’s capital lead the way to public morality? Whoa there. When did Washington DC take that kind of leadership? Under FDR with his secretary, or Eisenhower with his female driver, or Kennedy and Marilyn, or Clinton and Monica? OK, those were the days of what we might call traditional scandals. Times change and so do scandals. Now we have an illegitimate half-breed in the White House and same-sex weddings in the courthouse. Let’s face it. Washington does not lead the way to — or away from — family values. It just follows the crowd.

Hap—py Purim

Baruch — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 19:36:20 +0000

Of all the holidays on the Jewish calendar, today — Purim — has to be the most fun. For children there are costume parties and special treats like Hommentashen, and parades. Last night I saw sparklers and firecrackers too. Not to mention the right to make plenty of noise to drown out the name of Haman, the villain of the Purim story, when the Scroll of Esther is read in the syagogue. For the adults Purim has an added feature. One of the leading sages of the Talmud, Rava, taught that it is obligatory to drink on Purim “Ad d’lo Yada” — until you can’t distinguish — between the words “Boruch Mordechai” (blessed is Mordechai) and “Orur Hommon” (cursed is Haman). In Israel that expression is now the name of the annual Purim parade, the Adloyada. Imagine, Talmudic scholars who otherwise advocated self control and sobriety suddenly for one day in the year saying Go ahead, drink up! L’chaim! Another Talmudic tradition is called Gematria. Sounds like Geometry but it’s really numerology. Each letter of the Hebrew alphabet has a numerical value. Aleph is 1, Bet is 2, etc. Yod is 10, Caf is 20, Kuf is 100. Take the numerical value of letters in Boruch Mordechai. Add them up. Then take the value for Orur Hommon and add them up. The totals are exactly equal. What do they add up to? 502. Good old 502, the Drunk Driving violation. How appropriate can we get?

New Opportunity

Baruch — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 05:32:12 +0000

I want to give you something to discuss. During Hanukkah I went to Tucson for a purpose, namely, to present an award to two men who are doing some important and exciting work that offers a real and unique value to humanity in general and to the Jewish people in particular. They are scientists. Their field is genetics, specifically DNA. They can trace the human race back to one original mother and father somewhere in Africa — Adam and Eve, if you will. One of them proved that a certain woman was not who she claimed to be — Anastasia, daughter of the last Czar of Russia. The other was one of those who isolated the genome that identifies Kohanim, the descendants of Aaron the first High Priest, Moses’ brother. Now working together they launched the DNA Shoah project, with the purpose of reuniting families that were torn apart by the Holocaust. They seek DNA samples from survivors and children of survivors so they can build a data base, essential to matching any of us with long lost kin. Visit their website, www.dnashoah.org and learn more about this wonderful program. We were proud to be able to present its authors Syd Mandelbaum and Dr. Michael Hammer with the 2009 Cohon Award, named for my parents of blessed memory, Rabbi Samuel S. Cohon and A. Irma Cohon. And thereby hangs another website, www.cohonaward.com Another chance to join in making these awards that encourage valuable work in many fields.

I hope to hear from some of you that you used this opportunity to locate members of your own family!

No, No, Nobel

Baruch — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 23:18:27 +0000

Checking out the history of the Nobel Peace Prize, you will find that in the 103 years since the first one was awarded, 15 Americans won. Some were diplomats like Elihu Root, Frank Kellogg, Ralph Bunche or George Marshall. Others range from a scientist like Linus Pauling to clergymen like John Mott of the YMCA or Martin Luther King Jr. Just four were presidents of the United States, and a contrasting group they are. Winner of the very first Peace Prize was Teddy Roosevelt, the intrepid Rough Rider and “bully” head of state who negotiated the end of the Russo-Japanese war in 1906. That was a peace that lasted nearly 40 years. In 1919 a quiet academic named Woodrow Wilson won for founding the League of Nations, an achievement that looked truly noble (not Nobel) at the time, even though it crumbled barely two decades later. No other U.S. president won until 2002 when they gave it to Jimmy Carter who never succeeded at anything except building homes for the needy, a worthy achievement but hardly Peace Prize class. We won’t count the 2007 honoree, Al Gore who thought he should be president but didn’t quite make it. And now comes 2009 and Barack Hussein Obama, who did nothing to earn the prize before it was awarded, and now accepts it while escalating a war. Is the Nobel Committee serious? Apparently they are. Somewhere along the line they decided to use the Peace Prize as a political statement. After all, they honored Arafat, a terrorist and liar who robbed his own people, to make a political statement, namely that they were accepting the Arab line about “Palestinians” being a nation. They honored Gore for losing to Bush. And now they honor Obama for nothing except for not being Bush. Let’s face it — I have no chance to be nominated for a Nobel. Thank G-d! If they offered it to me I couldn’t accept such a polluted prize.

Losing it?

Baruch — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 21:49:32 +0000

Frequently I get humorous emails from friends of my generation, about our diminishing faculties — like memory that fails us, hearing loss that confuses us, fading eyesight, and of course that sorely missed activity called sex. Well, I tell them, I tried it both ways. I’ve been young, and I’ve been old, and I came to a definite conclusion: young is better. But when it comes to advancing years, you know the alternative to growing old — and no contest there. Growing old wins. Or does it? If the individual involved is fighting a painful physical condition, or a mind so demented that it cannot communicate with other human beings, is growing old worth the trouble? Enter total misery. Enter prayers for deliverance. Enter physician assisted suicide. Our society debates that idea, vociferously and validly. After all, medical science does make groundbreaking new discoveries that could — and do — give us additional welcome and productive years. We should not give up. Tired as these words may sound, they still have meaning: where there’s life there’s hope. Above all, whatever problems we face, we need to believe they can be solved. That’s what we pray for, three times a day in Judaism: “Heal us, G-d, and we shall be healed.” Look at life expectancy today as compared with a century ago. And then look at the malach-hamovves (the angel of death) and laugh: “On your way, fella. I’m not ready for you yet.” Remember, laughter can indeed be the best medicine. So zy gezunt — be well!

Bronze Star

Baruch — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 01:26:58 +0000

My bronze star is not a medal. I didn’t get it from Uncle Sam. It is a photograph of a beautiful sculptured Star of David, and I got it from a very talented friend named Marilyn Simon who created the original artwork. For some visual treats, check out her website, on the link list to the right.

Freedom of Religion, author: Baruch Cohon

Baruch — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 20:00:34 +0000

Freedom OF religion? Or freedom FROM religion? What does the Constitution say? We’ve all read it: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”
An establishment. That is the separation that must be kept. The Constitution does not separate religion as such from public or private life. Many of the Founding Fathers were reportedly not churchgoers but they were Deists. They believed in G-d. They intended that Americans would always have the right to worship in their own ways, and they embodied that right in the First Amendment Prohibiting all religious expression in public events is therefore illegal. That includes non-sectarian prayer, the pledge of allegiance, displaying the Ten Commandments, etc. Prohibiting those expressions is just as illegal as it would be to pass a resolution declaring the United States to be a Christian country, or a Muslim country, or a Jewish country. No atheist should be punished for abstaining, and no believer should be prevented from praying.