Two weeks ago, I attended my Zayde’s funeral. I’ve written about him before, but Zayde was a simple and pious man. He was notorious for his fiery personality, witty one-liners, and an impeccable attention to detail which he incorporated into his life stories. Snippets from those last few months of stories are now branded family folklore: fighting for his right to be a Sabbath-observant hospital orderly; the possibility that we may have a long-lost relative in Argentina; the time he punched out a ranking army officer for saying Hitler should have “finished the job.” And then there’s the one that I was around for: At a recent family bar mitzvah, Zayde, a cantor for many years, was getting irritated. During the mussaf service, a pretty standard revue of centuries-old Shabbat prayer melodies, Zayde, hard of hearing in his old age, angrily turned to us and shouted, “Who chose these nigunim [melodies]? It sounds like an Irish wake!” Turns out it was our cousin, the bar mitzvah boy. Classic :~)
In memory of Zayde, who loved Jewish music, here’s a Jewish-Yemenite melody for havdalah that actually does sound a little like an Irish wake. Yehi Zichro Baruch.
Tisha B’Av–the second most-observed fast day in the Jewish tradition after Yom Kippur–falls out this year on Wednesday Night/Thursday, July 30th-31st. On Saturday, August 1st, PBS will air Leonard Cohen’s performance from London. Guess what I’ll be doing after shabbat… Great stuff on Tisha B’Av at My Jewish Learning. My summary below. Read More »