Cuando el Rey Nimrod

[MaxwellSt <MaxwellSt...>]

I just found some interesting background material on this oft-recorded Ladino 
song which I thought I'd share with them that care (sources below). 
Lori

"A popular medieval legend, which has been retold in a <A 
HREF="http://www.jhom.com/topics/choir/cuando.htm";>ballad sung at Jewish 
birth celebrations</A> in the Balkans and which recounts the birth of Abraham, 
reflects the age-old importance attributed to celestial activity at the time 
of birth, as well as the medieval custom whereby kings employed astrologers 
to help them make strategic decisions. 

According to the legend, one evening King Nimrod summoned all his courtiers, 
councilors, and astrologers to make merry with him. Late at night, as they 
returned to their homes, they gazed up at the sky, and an enormous comet 
coursed across the horizon from the east and swallowed four stars, each in a 
different quarter of the heavens. The astrologers stood aghast and whispered 
to one another: "Terah's son has just been born. He will be a mighty Emperor. 
His descendants will multiply and inherit the earth for all eternity, 
dethroning kings and possessing their lands:" 

Nimrod ordered the baby to be put to death and relaxed only when he was told 
that this had been done. The murdered infant was not in fact Terah's child, 
however; his baby, who grew up to be Abraham, was well hidden in a cave, 
where he was fed by the angel Gabriel."

The blue highlight takes you to this further explanation:
"One of the best ways to understand a people is through their folksongs, 
which reflect both their mundane reality and their overriding world-view. The 
notice of Abraham's birth in the book of Genesis is very brief: "When Terah 
had lived seventy years, he begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran" (Genesis 11:26). 

The Israelite folk imagination, however, could not leave the moment 
unelaborated, and a many midrashim, legends and traditions grew up around 
this pivotal event in the history of the Jewish people. 

Many of these midrashim tell of the evil King Nimrod, a famed hunter and 
astrologer, who not only foretold the birth of Abraham but learned that 
Abraham would overthrow his idolatrous regime with a new faith in one God. In 
order to prevent this outcome (especially threatening since the king thought 
himself a god), Nimord sets out to destroy all newborn baby boys. Abraham is 
miraculously saved and goes on outsmart the King and survive a fiery furnace.

Cuando el Rey Nimrod is a Ladino<A HREF="http://www.jhom.com/topics/choir/#1";> 
</A>song that celebrates the birth of Abraham. 
It incorporates many elements taken from the Nimrod midrashim. This song is 
sung as a Shabbat z'mira (table song) and at circumcisions. The exact date of 
its origin is unknown but it probably dates from the 16th or 17th century."<A 
HREF="http://www.jhom.com/lifecycle/birth/#g";>
</A>
Graves, R. and R. Patai, Hebrew Myths (New York: Doubleday, 1964), pp. 134ff. 
The story is from story is from an early ninth-century midrash, Pirkei de 
Rabbi Eliezer, chapter 26. The Ladino ballad is thought to come from a 
twelfth century rendering of the legend: Attiad, M. "Romancot ve-shirei am 
be-yahadut sepharadit" (Jerusalem: Ben Zvi Institute, 1961), p. 236-38. 
Weich-Shahak, S., "Shirim sepharadiim yehudiim le-brit milah," Dohan 12 
(1989): pp. 168-70. More recently, it has become popular in a modern Hebrew 
version, too, written and sung by Israeli Naomi Shemer.     

source: http://www.jhom.com/lifecycle/birth/mazal_tov.htm