Re: Levi Yitzchak's Kaddish: A reply + some questions

[Robert Cohen <rlcm17...>]

I'm sorry that I wasn't able to get around to (and check my info first) 
replying to questions that were raised about the Kaddish of Levi Yitzchak of 
Berdichev.  A few thoughts, and my own inquiries, follow:


> >One of the interesting textual matters is that Levi Yitzhok in
> >Eisenstein's translation identifies himself as "son of Soroh".  Is
> >Soroh a male name?  Or is he identifying himself only by his mother's
> >name?
>
>Yes, I believe so.
>
> >If so, what is the precedent for doing so?
>
>Don't know.


REPLY:  Yes, he was surely identifying himself as the son of his mother.  
Why?  Because that's the customary manner of identifying someone (including, 
in this case, oneself) when one is beseeching/petititoning God to have 
rachmanes (compassion).  The quintessential example is a Mi Shebeirach 
prayer for healing, in which the person for whom healing is sought is always 
(traditionally) cited as the son or daughter of their *mother*--whereas when 
being called to the Torah, say (in a traditional context), one is identified 
as the son of one's father.  (Often, btw, that is objected to in some 
circles as "sexist," but I've never heard the other, complementary custom 
objected to.  This was an aside.)


> >  It's interesting that the recent Robeson
> >CD reissue credits Lehman Engel  I believe that Lehman Engel wrote an
> >autobiography, but I don't own it.  I also believe that Lehman Engel
> >conducted a series of revivals of Broadway musicals at the New York
> >State Theater in Lincoln Center that I attended as a boy (none of them
> >Jewish in content).
>
>That's him. He probably wrote the arrangement for Robeson.

REPLY:  I will be interested indeed to see this CD (I've just uncovered, in 
my mother's house, several LP compilations of Robeson), as until this 
thread, I'd never *heard* of Lehman Engel, and neither have either of my 
primary teachers.  I'm wondering why anything having to do w/ Levi Yitchak's 
kaddish, including in Robeson's version, is attributed to him--i.e., on what 
evidence.  I know of no Jewish music whatsoever attributed to him (well, he 
did a Creation piece, apparently); and I read somewhere an attribution of 
Robeson's English-language version to *Joel* Engel, though I have no source 
for that either (and can't even remember where I saw that attribution, which 
was hardly authoritative in any case).

Does anyone know the evidence for attributing the English words or any 
aspect of Levi Yitchak's kaddish to Lehman Engel?

And what is the evidence that the English version was created *for* Robeson, 
at all?

I often include this piece in my lectures and am *very* interested, and 
would be most appreciative, for enlightenment in re the above questions; 
thanks in advance (to whomever).

--Robert Cohen


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