Re: greetings-and chanukah and xmas songs

[jonathan gordon <jbgordon...>]

regarding yom kippur and the presense of gaiety/sadness:  Heschel wrote
about the two great fast days, "on tishe b'av, who could eat?  On Yom
Kippur, who needs to eat?"  it is a somber day, but not a day of mourning at
all- shabbat shabbaton, in fact.  of course, no sex, which makes it, well,
different from shabbat. but the idea of all these jews making peace with our
maker at the same time is a glad one, and kept me going well into neilah and
beyond. i was so elated, i hated to break my fast, and delayed it as long as
i was able.
as to the hebrew of chanukah, chankah, chag yafeh ... i wonder at the age of
the words, who wrote them, and all that. was it originally yiddish, i
forget. ,i am abashed, and will have trouble singing it without some
misgivings. maybe it was written by a maskil, who didnt know about the
chagigah, or such fine religious distinctions. personally, i still reserve
chag sameach for the shalosh r'galim, and will relish saying it this year
after this exchange.
anyhow, the last part of chanukah chag yafe, the last notes "ma naim v'tov",
are a restatement of "on a one horse open sleigh" clearly non chag-like,
from the brill building chassidim, no doubt.
which reminds me of a gravely serious  rabbi who lived near me and was
troubled because he liked the christmas song, the little drummer boy. i
thought about it, and showed him that the song restated part of the mi sinai
tune  kol nidre-  " a child, a child. is whatever in the night..." he felt
relieved. so was i, because i also had a soft spot for that part of that
maudlin christmas melody. we wear more than the clothes of our christian
neighbors.
jonathan gordon

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