Welcoming Shabbat with Adon Olam by Sephardic Music Interpreter Paco Diez

A versatile musician who plays guitar, zanfona (hurdy gurdy), gaita (Galician bagpipes) and countless other folk instruments, Paco Díez curates a musical instrument museum adjacent to his home in Mucientes, Castile. 

He is not only a performer, but also a scholar of Spanish folk music, and has collected songs, melodies, and rhythms from all over the Iberian peninsula, the Mediterranean, and northern Africa.

He is especially well known as a performer of Sephardic music, the heritage of Jewish people who were expelled from Spain in 1492 and dispersed into a diaspora where they maintained the Ladino language (closely related to modern Spanish). He performs all over the world, and in 2016 he was nominated for Spain’s highest honor in the arts, the Premio Princesa de Asturias de las Artes.

Today we're welcoming Shabbat with Paco Diez's interpretation of Adon Olam.

Enjoy, and Shabbat shalom!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO IS NOT VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO. 

Welcoming Shabbat with "Ki Eshmera Shabbat" by Apollo's Fire's "Sephardic Journey"

Named for the classical god of music, healing and the sun, Apollo’s Fire is a GRAMMY®-winning ensemble. The period-instrument orchestra was founded by award-winning harpsichordist and conductor Jeannette Sorrell, and is dedicated to the baroque ideal that music should evoke the various Affekts or passions in the listeners. 

Apollo’s Fire is a collection of creative artists who share Sorrell’s passion for drama and rhetoric. 

Based in Cleveland, Ohio, their album Sephardic Journey – Wanderings of the Spanish Jews reached close to the top of the Billboard World Music and Classical charts.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer's review said “Baritone Jeffrey Strauss delineated, with decorative elaboration worthy of a great cantor, the intense longing in the hearts of an exiled people to return to their homeland…"

Today we're welcoming Shabbat with the Apollo's Fire rendition of Ki Eshmera Shabbat. The Hebrew transliteration and English translation appear below.

Enjoy, and Shabbat Shalom!

 

LYRICS: 

Ki ‘eshmerà Shabbàt, ‘El yishmerèini. ‘Ot hi l’olmèi ad Beinò uveinì. [Repeat as Refrain.] 

If I guard the Sabbath, God will watch over me. The Sabbath is a seal Between God and me forever. [Repeat as Refrain.] 

Bò emtze‘àh tamìd Nòaḥ l’nafshì, Hinèi l’dor rishòn Natàn kedoshì, Mofèt b’tèt lèchem mishnèh vashishì, Kàkha b’khòl shishì Yakhpìl mizonì. [Refrain.] 

On the Sabbath I find rest for my soul. From the beginning, God gave a sign: Double-bread on the sixth day. So may my food be doubled On every sixth day. Refrain. 

Hu yom m’chubàd Hu yom ta‘anugìm, Lèḥem v’yàyin tov Basàr v’dagìm, Has’meḥìm bo, Hem simḥà masigìm, Ki yom s’maḥòt hu. [Refrain.] 

It is a day we honor, A day of pleasures: Bread and good wine, Meat and fish. Those who rejoice on the Sabbath Attain happiness, For it is a day of joy. Refrain. 

Hebrew transliteration & English translation by Jeffrey Strauss 

Welcoming Shabbat with Ein Keloheinu Sung by Hazzan Daniel Halfon to a Melody by Beethoven

Daniel Halfon is the Emeritus Hazzan of the Yad Harav Nissim synagogue in Jerusalem and a leading authority of the cantorial style of the western Sephardim. A classically trained baritone, Halfon was born in England and grew up in London's ancient Spanish and Portuguese community under the tutelage of Rabbi Dr Abraham Levy. 

He studied Hazzanut with three of the outstanding cantors of the Western Sephardi tradition: Eliezer Abinun z"l, Abraham Beniso z"l and Abraham Lopes Cardozo z"l. As a young man he received the call from Congregation Shearith Israel in New York to serve as Hazzan, and over the past 30 years he has been invited to sing in Sephardi synagogues across the world. 

In this video Hazzan Halfon sings a multitracked rendition of Ein Keloheinu, a song sung toward the conclusion of the Shabbat Shacharit service. The melody is based on the second (allegretto) movement of Beethoven's seventh symphony.

Scroll down to watch and listen to Zubin Mehta conducting the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra as they play the full second movement.

Enjoy, and Shabbat shalom! 

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.