Tuesday, September 22, 2015

SY Rechnitz's Addendum to "Shak'a Chama" and my own Variation



I am of course happy whenever RAEK zt"l, my hero, is brought to the attention of new generations that may be inspired by his brilliance, but I am not entirely happy with the "addendum." V'ha'mayvin yavin madu'a.



I myself have written a zemer for Seudah Shelishis on the basis of Shak'ah Chamah. I have been told it is too moody, but here it is for "posterity:"




תשקע חמה תשקע נפשי, בתהום החולין של יום יום
כי עומדה ליפול היא במלחמתה, עם החלב והדם
ימים עוברים ימים כלים, מבלי קדושה קשים שאת
אם לא זאת שבת קודש, לא טוב החיים מן המת
החייני קלי צפות לשבת, תעבור שבוע כמו חלום
תשקע חמה, תתעלה נפשי, בעלות שבת מן התהום



I

The original:

1. The earliest recording of the poem (AFAIK): 




2. and a more recent recording: 

 

The advantage in the earlier recording is that it is more "raw." Reb Abish Brodt gives it a "flourish" it is not meant to have.

Friday, September 11, 2015

Mechanchim, Heads Up!

I came back to the Fall term to be almost immediately shown this clip by a talmid. It is a classic devastating leitzanus achas dochah elef tochochos! Within just the first couple of days several things that I said were dismissed by some talmidim as "Buchwuch."



Ah, the challenges of chinuch in the 21st century!