Pragmatist
Pragmatist

I was looking for some music to play on my tape player.  Pulled out this drawer, and that drawer, and finally the drawer.  And what did I find there?  A tape that still had its shrink wrap around it.  A tape that I didn't recognize.  No recollection whatever about when I ordered it, when it came to me, and why I hadn't played it.

So.  Investigation showed me that the tape is called Modzitz Classics (sixteen songs), Volume Two.  Two?  Where's Volume One?  Why only Two?  Well.  So I unwrapped the tape and put it in my player.

The surprise? The first song on Side 1 is L'cha Dodi (Come my Beloved), a song we sing Friday evening after candle lighting--Prayer for Welcoming the Shabbat.  L'cha dodi likrat chalah, p'nay shabat n'kavlah.  Come, my Beloved, to meet the Bride; let us welcome the Shabbat.

But an entirely new melody.  In waltz time, the melody like a lover's song.  Beautiful.  

There are 16 songs, all composed by rabbis of the Modzitz Chasidic dynasty developed over 100 years ago.  There are some "folk" songs and some "synagogue" songs, all in new melodies.  The  L'cha Dodi was composed in 1917 and the latest, Shir Hama'alot (Song of Ascents), in 1966.  

Besides new melodies to old songs and prayers, they are accompanied by musical instruments, something you'd never hear in an Orthodox synagogue on the Shabbat.  In fact, there's a plea on the cover: "Please don't play on Shabbos or Yom Tov" (holy day).

Well,  I'm about to wear out the tape on non-Shabbos or non-Yom Tov days.

But there's still the mystery of where and when did the tape come from?

Shalom