Vi nemt men di heylike teg?

[SamWeiss <SamWeiss...>]

At 04:25 AM 10/7/02, Jack Falk \(E-mail\) wrote:
>where I heard a beautiful nign (in 3/4) that begins azoy:
>      Vi zenen di heylige teg?
>      Zey zenen avekgegangen.
>      Me ken zey nisht haltn,
>     Nor mit ayzerne klangen.
>Does this yontefdike musar-nign sound familiar to anyone?

There was something fishy about the fourth line that Yankl quoted above; it 
was too poetic for this genre, which is usually concerned with a heavy 
didactic message and a rhyme at any cost, but not with poetic delicacy.   I 
followed Itzik's lead and found the song on Suki & Ding's Yiddish Classics 
tape and sure enough, it's not as good as Yankl's memory of it.

This is a rough translation of the four lines as Yankl remembers it:
         Where are the holy days?
         They have departed.
         We can hold on to them
         Only with sounds of iron.

But the version on Suki's tape has "tsvangen" (tongs/pliers) rather than 
"klangen" (sounds). Here is the first verse, and my translation:

Vi nemt men di heylike teg?
Zey zenen avekgegangen
Mir darfn zey tsu haltn
Mit ayzerne tsvangen
         Oh, for those holy days
         They have departed
         We must hold on to them
         With tongs of iron

It's indeed a musar-nign (moralizing song) but not a yontefdike one.  The 
"holy days" do not refer to a holiday, but to the legendary "days of yore" 
-- that temporal Lake Woebegon (you know, where all the women are strong 
[in their faith], and all the children above average [in their Torah 
observance] etc.).  As far as the simple melody, it seems to be a variant 
of the Russian tune which gave us the Yiddish song "Vi iz dus gesele, vi iz 
dus shtib."  The nostalgic "Where is the..." motif must have inspired the 
words of this religious song as well as the tune.
Here are the remaining verses; perhaps you'll find them more inspiring than 
I do.   (For convenience in reading I'll put the translation after each 
Yiddish verse.)

Mit ayzerne tsvangen tzu haltn
Un tshuve tsu ton oyf dem altn
Di aveyres avektsuvarfn
Un dem boyre-oylom tsu horkhn
         With iron tongs to hold
         And to repent for the old
         The sins to cast away
         And to hearken to the Creator

Di ergste mide iz geyes
Es dervaytert fun akhvo v'reyes
Un nor a bisl anovo
Dos iz dokh a mide toyvo
         The worst trait is arrogance
         It removes one from harmony and friendship
         And just a little humility
         That is a good trait

Der keser fun toyre iz ofn
Me ken dos nisht krign mit shlofn
Nor mit yegi'e rabo
Ken men koyne-zayn oylom-habo
         The crown of Torah is open
         You don't get it by sleeping
         Only with much toil
         Can you acquire The World To Come

Mit toyre un yiras shomayim
Iz men zoykhe tsu di emese khayim
A lebn fun neytsakh-netsokhim
A khesed fun melekh-melokhim
         With Torah and the fear of Heaven
         Do you merit true life
         A life of eternity
         A gift from the King of Kings

_____________________________________________________________

Cantor Sam Weiss === Jewish Community Center of Paramus, NJ

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