Some lyrics are just so confusing. Finally, the answers that have been eluding you
1: Two in the front, seven in the back. There were no seat belts in sthose days.
2: Dr. Middos of course. He’s a whiz with all kinds of machines!
The song was originally sung at Chabad farbrengens as Yifrach, and the words were applied by the DRS high school boys in Woodmere. So it’s not my song but I definitely sing it a lot. I’m gonna go deep on you: The questioner is yourself and you ask yourself, Nu, what’s it like being a Yid? That’s a question we need to keep asking ourselves, mainly to be reminded of the answer that it’s the most amazing thing to be a Yid. It’s geshmak.
I never heard of the Cook’s Almanac until you mentioned it. Still, I did check, and it’s not in that one either, although they did have a good recipe for kasha varnishkes.
I’ve subsequently been informed that apparently kissing your Bubby IS a bigger mitzvah than kissing your mezuzah! And it might also pay off more come Chanukah.
And you have the punctuation wrong.
It’s “Hug your Bubby, kiss her on the cheek, tell her that you love her,” although she’s old and weak!”
I hope you can now sleep at night!
Klonymus doesn’t know anything better, because he’s a Stukinderheim Chussid. He’s never even been to Flatbush!
Every time I sing this, I wonder why there is candlelight in the baby’s room?! It seems like a really big fire hazard! Is this a song harking back to the olden days? Or one specifically for Friday nights? Still, should you have your leichter in the baby’s room? Please clarify.
The easy answer is that of course it was written for a play in the 1800s where candlelight was the go-to mode for bleary-eyed moms. But in full disclosure, I wrote the song while serving as a married staff member in Camp Bnos, as a young mother of two little girls who I had probably only coaxed to sleep five minutes before — with no candlelight present. Either way, the universal truth that mothers can attest to is that by candlelight or any light, our children seem to magically appear 100 times cuter the moment their eyes are closed and the even breathing indicating slumber is a sure thing.
I think it’s a bit much to lay all the blame for this scene on the kids’ bad middos. It is pretty normal for kids to want stuff, but isn’t it the parents’ job to say no when they don’t think it’s appropriate to buy something? If they did say no, calmly but confidently and firmly, the kids wouldn’t keep on asking and asking, ‘crying and shouting.’ That behavior is perpetuated by the parent who buys them all they want, ‘much more than they could afford.’
I’m not sure if this is naturally bad middos, or if it’s a learned behavior that the parents are enabling.
That’s a serious and difficult question. I don’t think I’ll have a clear answer until I’m well into my Purim seudah.
From the times of Yehoshua until the Crusaders reached Eretz Yisrael more than 2,000 years passed, with lots of suffering and miracles of survival in between. Where did all that time go?
I actually wrote those lines myself before I gave the song to the lyricist, although honestly, I didn’t think she would use them.
Who says I’m referring to the desert on the way out of Egypt? I could be referring to the desert from Babylon (they have them there, too!) which is only hundreds of years from the Crusades.
To be honest, in a five-and-a-half-minute song we didn’t have time to mention all the troubles and miracles Klal Yisrael faced. As you know, there are too many. Dayeinu!
Who is this guy? Can we get his biography? Sounds like he has a fascinating story about clandestine Judaism and imprisonment in Soviet Russia.
It’s a great question. First, let’s clarify the words and that will help a lot. (As you know, 8th Day lyrics are studied in yeshivos around the world.) So, let’s start with pshat: There is an old Russian chassidic song called “Ne’ bayutzya” (Don’t be afraid) — nyet nyet nikavo (there is none besides Hashem). The words of our song reference that old song. That’s the simple meaning.
Our family is descended from chassidic families who lived in Russia, where the Chabad Lubavitch movement has deep roots. When the Rebbe came to America, he brought this song and bravery, which we try to infuse into our music.
With the rising prices and tuition crisis, it’s long past time to move out of Brooklyn already. And there are no rumors of gold in Toms River. So tell us more about the country and the bushel full of gold? Which state? Do you need a license to gather it?
You can certainly save a bushel of gold on housing costs if you move to Kansas — and if you go there and start a yeshivah, you can give yourself a nice tuition break.
Is Mr. Katz from Katz’s Wedding Consultant Agency the same Mr. Katz who went with all of his kids to the store? Makes sense. After all, his kids learned from him that going over the top is just normal. Simple even. And if you’re speaking to him, can you ask him how the wedding guests are supposed to carry home a Shas — and what should the baal simchah give the ladies???
1: Yup, you nailed it. Same misguided fella. 2: It would have been a coupon for Eichler’s or Zundel Berman Books. 3: Mrs. Hershkowitz was just about to get on the phone and ask Mr. Katz that question… but as you know, her husband hung up.
The narrator says about the woman who’d left frumkeit that “One Friday Eve she’d taken ill and couldn’t leave her home”, and that then, “The woman visiting the sick came into her room.” Something seems off about that scenario…. If she couldn’t leave her home, this “woman visiting the sick” just went around to people’s houses delivering candles on Friday nights, and went into their bedrooms?! Unless the “room” she came into was, like, her living room or dining room? And still, why is she making house calls to a non-frum woman? How does she even know she’s sick?
You’re asking for a lot of detail that could hardly be packed into just 16 bars. First of all, their interaction happened on Friday Eve. Obviously, it could not yet have been Shabbos or else the woman visiting the sick could not have brought her candles to light. So the question you’re asking is why is this woman bringing candles to a person who is not frum? The answer is, does that really matter? Clearly the woman visiting her was involved in kiruv. She saw an opportunity to approach someone in need and, as the song continues to tell us, it obviously paid off.
But the stars are further away from us than the moon!!!
I’ve been asked this question many times over the years. The Purim answer is that if I sang “I’m shootin’ for the stars tonight but if I miss I’ll make it to the moon” it wouldn’t rhyme well!
But all kidding aside, the moon is accessible, and we are able to reach it if we just try hard enough. So I am shootin’ for the moon and going for it, but if I miss at least I’ll hit the stars.
Aren’t all inventions something you have never seen? Were you following the great tradition of Jewish double expressions, as in “Gut Yom Tov,” and “Can you pass the mayim acharonim water?”
“Up, Up, and Away” was composed by Professor Doubletalk.
After the whole fight, who paid for the mess?
Mexico!
How did the shooting stars defy the laws of physics and travel at the speed of light? (Yes, this is a science-y thing, sorry non-STEM people, for bringing it into a music column.)
If people can tweak pesukim or divrei Chazal to fit their songs (yes, they do!) then tweaking the laws of science shouldn’t come as a surprise, really.
When Gedalia Goomber rings the bell and offers to help Uncle Moishy unpack his seforim, Uncle Moishy doubts his strength. But in his Gedalia Goomber song in response we find out that he is 17 feet tall and can carry a ton of bricks. Not sure how Uncle Moishy missed that when he opened the door.
The truth has always been a very big secret and now it’s finally coming out. Big Gedalia was clearly very tall. You could see that by looking at him. On the other hand, we didn’t know how strong he was until he would do some amazing thing to show his super-duper strength.
So, everyone knew he could change a lightbulb, get the eggs from a birds’ nest, pick an esrog from a treetop, or rescue a kitten stuck in a tree, BUT he hid the fact that he could do heavy lifting.
And Uncle Moishy didn’t know it either.
Once the song started and the adventures came about, everyone, including Uncle Moishy, was able to see how strong he was.
(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1053)
