Mike Nichols and Elaine May - Teenagers on a First Date

Our last post was a tribute to the late director, producer, actor, and comedian Mike Nichols. We had so many positive comments and requests for more of the skits that he performed on TV with Elaine May that we decided to run some more.

Here is another classic skit showing Nichols and May as a pair of awkward teenagers sitting in a car on their first date. The dialogue captures the anxiety, uncertainty, and eagerness of young budding love. Some of it was said to be improvised, and it shows the quick wit of both comedians.

May, now 82, was born Elaine Iva Berlin in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1932, the daughter of Jewish parents, theater director/actor Jack Berlin and actress Ida Berlin. As a child, Elaine performed with her father in his traveling Yiddish theater company, which he took around the country. Her stage debut on the road was at the age of three, and she eventually played the character of a generic little boy named Benny.

There is no sound for the first 17 seconds of the routine, but it doesn't affect the story line, so just be patient until the sound kicks in.

Enjoy!

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Remembering Mike Nichols: First of a Series - The $65 Funeral

Mike Nichols, film, theatre and television director, producer and comedian, died yesterday at the age of 83. He is mostly being remembered as a celebrated director and one of a very few who won an Oscar, Tony, Emmy, and Grammy.

From 1961 to this year, he was widely acclaimed for his more than 20 successful films and more than 20 successful Broadway shows, but our recollections of him are mostly of his appearances on television shows in the 1950s with his comedy partner Elaine May.

The comedy skits of Nichols and May were never slapstick, but they were clever pieces of social satire. 

Born in Berlin in 1931 as Mikhail Igor Peschkowsky, Nichols attended a segregated school for Jewish children. His father, a doctor, fled the Nazis by moving the family to New York City when Nichols was still a child. May was born in 1932 in Philadelphia, the daughter of the director, writer, and principal actor of a traveling Jewish theatrical company. She caught the thespian bug early, appearing on stage in the roles of little boys.

In 2012 we posted one of their funniest skits, a phone call between Nichols as the son and May as his mother. Just click on the line above to see it again.

Today we're posting another of their classics, The $65 Funeral, a skit they performed on the Jack Paar show. As an extended tribute, we'll be posting a few more Nichols and May routines in the coming days.

Enjoy!

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Brad Zimmerman's Show, My Son the Waiter, Gets New Life Off-Broadway

Earlier this year, we posted a clip of Brad Zimmerman performing a short excerpt from his off-Broadway show My Son the Waiter. 

The show, a funny review of his life as a comic actor and waiter, was supposed to close at the end of December, but has been extended through March 2, 2015.

Written and directed by Zimmerman, who also stars, My Son the Waiter tells the story of how Zimmerman, now pushing 60, waited tables in New York for a mind-numbing 29 years, before finally taking himself seriously enough to study stand-up comedy, and write a one-man show about waiting until his mid-50s to perform onstage.

Zimmerman is an actor and comedian who has opened for George Carlin and Joan Rivers. He is also known for appearing on HBO's The Sopranos.

Here's a longer (8 minute) look at Zimmerman on stage telling his funny life story.

Enjoy!

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Yiddishology: Untranslatable Yiddish Words -- Machatenesta, Mechuten, Machatonim

The Wexler Oral History Project of the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts is a growing collection of in-depth video interviews with people of all ages, exploring Yiddish cultural topics and issues of modern Jewish identity.  

The Project is particularly interested in how Yiddish language and culture inform Jewish identity, and how they, along with Jewish values and practices, are transmitted across generations.

Some of the interviews focus on the intricacies and colorful delights of the Yiddish language. There are words in Yiddish for which there is no simple word for word translation into other languages. To get an accurate translation in English, for example, you may have to construct a phrase, sentence, or paragraph to convey the same meaning.

In this video excerpt from the Wexler files, Milly Guberman Kravetz relishes the flavor of the Yiddish word machatenesta, and renders it into English. Can you define machatenesta (or mechutenista)?

The English translation is the mother of a child's spouse. The male counterpart is mechutan, actually a Hebrew word for the father of a child's spouse, and the parents of a child's spouse are mechutanim, also a Hebrew word. These latter two words have migrated into Yiddish as mechuten and machatonim. They are all derived from chatan, the Hebrew word for groom.

Since the Yiddish pronunciation of chatan is chosson, we could playfully ask why the spouse's mother isn't called a machossonesta and the parents machossonim in Yiddish, but we're not going to go there.

Enjoy!

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Classic Jackie Mason: Jewish and Gentlile Names, Occupations, and Lots More

Every time we post a Jackie Mason comedy routine we get lots of requests for more. So here's one of the best and most typical of Jackie's performances -- this one in a very large auditorium in which Jackie was wearing a yarmulke.

In the course of this ten minute clip, Jackie carries on about Jews who don't want to be seen as too Jewish, and makes fun of Jews who try to pass as gentiles. 

Along the way, he shows off some of his cantorial talents, and reflects on parents with very Jewish names who give their children non-Jewish first names, occupations that you will never see Jews working in, and the absence of obviously Jewish names among leading dress designers.

Enjoy!

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Jokes to Start the Week: 10 Jewish Jokes in 4 Minutes by Henny Youngman - King of the One Liners

When it came to telling rapid-fire one-liner jokes, nobody came close to Henny Youngman (1906-1998). We've posted some of his other jokes and routines previously, but this set is exclusively Jewish and are all on one of 21 tracks on Henny's CD Take My Album...Please! or 2 Sets for the Price of One.

We usually post a single joke on Mondays to get the week off to a funny start, but we hope you won't object to getting ten for the price of one today.

Enjoy!

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Wall Street Journal Puts Chassidic Comic Mendy Pellin on Front Page

On Friday November 14 The Wall Street Journal printed a feature article about Chassidic rabbi and comedian Mendy Pellin on its front page. 

The article in the "A-Hed" position  below the fold, was titled Did You Hear the One About the Rabbi Who Carries a Big Schtick? (In later editions and online, they changed the title to This Rabbi Raps and Riffs -- on Judaism.)

We have been featuring Mendy's schtick on Jewish Humor Central since 2010, with 12 posts including his music parodies, news show parodies, and other funny stuff.

As Lucette Lagnado wrote in the Wall Street Journal,

Mr. Pellin is an Hasidic Jew who trolls Tinsel Town in a skull cap and sneakers, a long beard grazing his polo shirt. An ordained rabbi, his risky mission is to show the world that an observant culture—largely absent from the comedy mainstream—is natural fodder for funny.

“I call this period the ‘Hasidic Spring,’ ” he says, noting that many Hasidic youth are now embracing Facebook and Twitter, thereby pushing the boundaries of a once-insular society.

“Talk Yiddish to Me” is one of Mr. Pellin’s signature online music videos. A parody of the hit Jason Derulo song, “Talk Dirty,” the number features the comedian, dressed in full black Hasidim garb accented with an enormous gold chain.

Surrounded by singing sidekicks, he sways back and forth, as if praying, and busts the kind of rap moves—like hand gestures straight from the ’hood—more often associated with 50 Cent or Eminem.

YouTube counts more than 237,000 views for the video; Mr. Pellin says it has received millions more hits via other social networks.

What do other Hasidic rabbis think of Mendy's schtick? Those with a sense of humor generally like it and those without a sense of humor don't. The article has lots more information about Mendy and other Orthodox comedians. It's a good read and worth your time. You'll find it right here.

Enjoy!

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Comedy on Records - Sam Levenson Tells a Bar Mitzvah Story

Sam Levenson (1911-1980) was one of the most popular Jewish comedians on television from the 1940s through the 1970s. He was a panelist on The Price is Right, What's My Line, and Password. He had his own show, The Sam Levenson Show, hosted the game show Two For the Money, and appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show 22 times.

His Jewishness was apparent from his speech and his stories about his large immigrant family in Brooklyn. It came through most clearly in his recordings of growing up Jewish in New York.

There was no YouTube back in 1947 when this 78rpm record was made, so the only motion in this video is the record revolving on the turntable. But we think you'll laugh and enjoy Levenson's story of the Bar Mitzvah Boy. We can't prove it, but we think this may be the origin of the classic "Today I am a fountain pen" joke.

Enjoy!

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Supreme Court Justices Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer Reflect on Being Jewish Justices

The 2014 General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America met in Washington, DC this week (November 9-11), and attendees listened to Supreme Court associate justices Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer speak about the significance of being Jewish justices.

Justice Kagan recalled her Bat Mitzvah, the first one conducted by Rabbi Steven (now Shlomo) Riskin at the Lincoln Square Synagogue in New York. 

Justice Breyer pondered the connection between Judaism, social justice, and the rule of law.

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EXCLUSIVE On-Site Report! Best In Show and Unusual New Products From Kosherfest 2014

Carrot cake macaroons, chocolate candy hamantaschen, gluten-free ginger snap cookies, kosher "crab, lobster, scallops, and shrimp", hemp flour and seeds, tea ice pops, and Marzipan rugelach from Jerusalem.
 

These are some of the prize winning and unusual products on display yesterday and today for the thousands of visitors representing all aspects of the food industry at Kosherfest 2014 at the Meadowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus, New Jersey.

More than 325 exhibitors lining both sides of seven aisles are vying  for the attention of visitors (trade only -- but some kiddush aficionados seem to have found their way into the hall) who try to manage noshing and stuffing literature into the bags provided by some vendors (and rolling suitcases brought by attendees).  And there's plenty to nosh and to stuff.

Some of the samples are meat, some are dairy, and some are pareve.  But all three types are scattered around the show floor, so anyone trying to keep kosher has to make careful choices.

The vendors are hoping that visitors will make bulk purchases, and some of the newer, smaller, and foreign companies exhibiting for the first time are hoping to find distributors who will bring their wares to your local supermarket.

If you love kiddush, can make a case for being in some kind of food-related business, have a few hours to spare and don't mind walking half a mile to a parking lot, this is the place for you.  It's still open all day today, Wednesday, from 10 am to 4 pm.  The on-site registration fee is $90.

We interviewed a few of the exhibitors and got closeups of some of the more unusual delicacies in this video for you to savor.  Enjoy!  

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A Job For a Nice Jewish Boy - Doctor, Lawyer? No, Exterminator, and He Traps Pests the Torah Way

Moshe Stein has a company called NJB - Nice Jewish Boy. So what kind of company is NJB? We would never guess unless we watched the Jewish Daily Forward's video about Moshe and his line of business.

So what field is NJB in? Medicine? Law? No, Pest control. Moshe is an exterminator.  An Orthodox Jewish exterminator. One of about 25 to 30 Orthodox Jewish exterminators, up from five when he started the business. And Moshe says New York is an amazing place for pests.

As Paul Berger reported in the Forward,

Stein’s clients are overwhelmingly Orthodox Jews, either private homeowners or apartment building landlords. He’s part of a growing number of Orthodox exterminators sensing a business opportunity in a swelling population in New York City.

He believes that trust is one of the most important factors for a successful pest control business. And Orthodox Jews are more trusting of an Orthodox exterminator.

“We say that all of us met at Mount Sinai,” Stein said. “We already met once. I think there’s that comfort.”

In his work, profit isn't his primary concern. Moshe answers to a higher power. When he traps animals, he makes sure that they have the proper food. Because the Torah cares about how they feel, he says he definitely has to care too.

Enjoy!

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A Joke to Start the Week - "Two Beggars in Rome"

And a good Monday morning to all of our readers. It's time for another joke to start the week.

Today's joke teller is 70-year-old Lawrence Goldberg, an auditor and another member of the Old Jews Telling Jokes family of jokesters.

Here's the setup: Two beggars were sitting outside the Tivoli fountain in Rome. One beggar had his hat in front of him with a crucifix, and the other beggar had his hat in front of him with a star of David. And people are walking by and they're all putting donations in the hat with the crucifix. And then...

Enjoy!

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Israeli Web Series Satire - "Dalia Goes Supermarket Shopping"

Back in April we introduced you to Dalia, the (we hope not typical) Israeli character who has her own ideas about politeness and acceptable behavior in public. 

Dalia may not be the typical Israeli, but if you've spent any time there, it's likely that you've met her or someone very much like her. Dalia is the creation of Deb Kaye, one of the principal performers in the Jerusalem-based HaHafuch comedy and improv troupe that we've featured many times on Jewish Humor Central.
 
This time Deb has gone out on her own to produce a series of skits called Rega Israel. Rega is the most popular saying in Israel, literally meaning "Just a minute." It's now a new comedy web series offering a taste of funny happenings in Israel, viewed through the perspective of satire and parody.
 
April's skit took place in a coffee shop. Today's skit is in an Israeli supermarket where Dalia gives new meaning to rudeness and selfishness. In the span of a few minutes, she

• grabs another shopper's cart, or trolley (Carts in Israel are sometimes in short supply)
• removes the leaves from a head of cauliflower to avoid paying for them (by weight)
• talks loudly on her cellphone while complaining about another shopper talking (quietly) on his phone
• opens multipacks of toilet paper to see which one is the softest 
• flirts with a clerk
• gets in the express lane with four items and then proceeds to fill up the cart
• finds a cart blocking her car in the parking lot and moves it to block another car

Just another day in the life of Dalia. We'll be watching for more episodes.
  Enjoy! 

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Classic Jackie Mason - "Exotic Island and Safari Vacations"

Are you planning a vacation trip to an exotic island or a safari? After a few minutes with Jackie Mason, you may want to rethink the whole idea and spend your vacation sitting in your house.

In this classic excerpt from Jackie's "Ultimate Jew" Broadway show in March 2009 that he calls "Stupid Vacations" Jackie cuts through the superlatives that Jews use to describe wonderful vacations. 

He tells it like it is, poking fun of the beautiful blue waters on exotic French islands and recounting the terror of sitting in a bouncing truck on safari with two gentiles with long guns sitting behind him.

Enjoy!

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Clean Comedy Classic: Rita Rudner on the David Letterman Show

We look at a lot of comedy clips in selecting funny bits that have some Jewish content or are delivered by Jewish comedians, and we marvel at how rare it is to find current clips that use humor, and not foul language, to get an audience to laugh out loud.

Many of the old-time comedians who could be counted on to tell clean jokes and anecdotes aren't around anymore, but it's comforting to know that some of the younger comedians who tell funny family-friendly jokes are still performing.

One of our favorites is Rita Rudner, who started out in New York comedy clubs but now makes her home in Las Vegas.

Rudner married British producer Martin Bergman about 20 years ago and now they have a daughter.  She is fond of Jewish humor but generally reserves it for when she performs for Jewish audiences.

Here's a funny clip of Rudner performing on the David Letterman Show. Enjoy!

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El Al Haredi Seating Incident Inspires Parody In-Flight Safety Video

After a wave of news reports about a group of Haredi El Al passengers refusing to sit next to women on a flight from New York to Israel, Joel and Stephen Levinson, comedy writers and video producers from Dayton, Ohio saw an opportunity. 

Writing in Tablet, the on-line Jewish magazine, they created and shared a parody of the in-flight safety video that airlines use to make passengers aware of the airline's safety features and demonstrate their use.

Unlike actual videos shown pre-flight, this one advises "Should you discover that you are seated next to a woman, release your seat belt and proceed to any of the male congregation areas."

Enjoy!

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Jewish Traces in Unexpected Places: New York City Marathon Starts With an Outdoor Shacharit Minyan

JHC Reporter Meyer Berkowitz at the start of the NYC Marathon Minyan

For observant Jewish runners, the annual New York City Marathon starts not with the firing of a starter gun, but with the opening words of the morning prayer service.

Since 1983, Jewish runners from all levels of observance, young and old, men and women, speaking languages from six continents, come together before sunrise under a tent at Fort Wadsworth, Staten Island, to daven Shacharit with a minyan before the race begins.

On Sunday, Jewish Humor Central reporter and photographer Meyer Berkowitz joined the group to record the event and assist in collecting the tallitot and tefillin of the runners and delivering them to their owners at the end of the race.

The International Marathon Minyan was started in 1983 by Peter Berkowsky, an Orthodox shul-goer from New Jersey and Rabbi Jim Michaels, a marathoner rabbi from Queens who had davened alone on the parade ground the previous year. 

Berkowsky had just completed a year of saying Kaddish for his mother. His primary motive was to accommodate other runners who were saying Kaddish, but over the years, there were surprisingly few minyan participants saying Kaddish among the thousands who came to the minyan. Looking back, he realized that the morning service had evolved into something more important than just a minyan of convenience for mourners. 

Berkowsky wrote a letter to a local Jewish paper asking for participants in the Marathon minyan. Rabbi Michaels responded enthusiastically, and that's how the minyan started.

The minyan benefited from the early and constant support of the late Fred Lebow, the legendary creator and promoter of the New York City Marathon, and world consultant on long-distance running.

In the minyan's third year, the organizers asked him to move the marathon from October to November to avoid a conflict with Simchat Torah. Lebow, a Holocaust refugee with frum roots, enthusiastically agreed, and that's where it has remained ever since.

Enjoy!

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A Joke to Start the Week - "Customer Loyalty"

A happy Monday morning to all of our readers. And what's a Monday morning without a joke to start the week? So here's our entry to kick off this week. It's another gem from Old Jews Telling Jokes.

Today's joke teller is 69-year-old Mike Leiderman, a sportscaster and executive producer.

Here's the setup: A guy eats at the same deli for 30 years. He has lunch, the owner loves him, gives him the best food, he treats him like one of his own. But one day he doesn't show up. And then...

Enjoy!

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Jewish Traces in Unexpected Places: Thailand Ladyboys Sing Hava Nagila

Today's blog post combines two of our recurring themes -- Unusual juxtapositions of Jewish music and culture in strange environments and the continuing popularity of Hava Nagila around the globe.

We wouldn't expect to encounter a group of transgendered singers and dancers performing a rousing version of Hava Nagila on a stage in Bangkok, Thailand, but that's exactly what we found. This is the 48th version of Hava Nagila that we've posted since we started Jewish Humor Central five years ago.

Bangkok's entertainers include a large number of what they call Ladyboys, and why these performers chose to exhibit their talents to one of the most popular Jewish melodies is beyond us. 

If you think the whole thing is somehow backwards, take a look at the writing on the stage wall. It's Hava Nagila in English, Thai, Chinese, Japanese, and Hebrew, but the Hebrew letters are backwards, written from left to right instead of from right to left.

Enjoy!

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If Halloween Were a Jewish Holiday...

Tonight, while we celebrate Shabbat, most Americans will dress up in funny costumes and take their kids around the neighborhood collecting candy from their neighbors.

Why? It's Halloween, of course, the secular holiday that had its origins in pagan and Catholic rituals, but today is largely devoid of them.

Rabbi Mendy Pellin, the Chabad comedian who heads up Jewbellish, a funny Jewish web site, wondered if Halloween were a Jewish holiday, what rules would the rabbis cook up to control every aspect of its observance, much the way we have detailed times and measurements for all aspects of our Jewish holidays.

For example, there would certainly be rules for selecting pumpkins for Jack-o-Lanterns much the way there are rules for selecting the etrog for use on Sukkot. In the spirit of satire, Binyomin Ginzburg, of BreslovBarBand.com, has come up with a mini Shulchan Aruch (Code of Jewish Law) detailing the laws of Halloween observance.

His list includes 12 major rules and a few minor ones. These are followed by others suggested by visitors adding their comments to the Jewbellish site. Here are a few examples:

• One does not make a blessing before trick or treating, because it is not certain that the homeowner will be home. (And one may not utter Gd’s name in vain.)
• When giving candy, one must give an amount at least the size of an olive (about five candy corns.) Some are of the opinion that it has to be at least the size of an egg (twelve candy corns.) This opinion is preferable.

Shabbat shalom!

Actor Jack Black Will Do Anything (Even Sing Had Gadya) to Get His Kids Into Hebrew School

Actor/Comedian Jack Black was interviewed on the Conan O'Brien show a couple of years ago and told the story of how he wanted to get his children into Hebrew school. 

Black was born a Jew and is married to a Jew. He considers himself an atheist. He and his wife hadn't been to a synagogue in years, but felt pressure to put on a good show at the school interview. So he referenced his wife's grandfather's Haggadah and sang Had Gadya while the other parents rolled their eyes.

Black then launched into a description of Had Gadya as the original heavy metal song because it's all about the chain of life.

We don't know whether or not his kids did go to Hebrew school, but his Wikipedia entry says that he has started going to synagogue with them.

Enjoy!

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A Comedy Classic for Parshat Noach - Bill Cosby's "Noah" Routine

This past Shabbat, the Torah portion of the week read in synagogues around the world was Parshat Noach, the second portion in the book of Bereisheet (Genesis) that told the story of Noah, the ark that he built at God's command, and the great flood.

There have been many commentaries on this story, but the only one that belongs on Jewish Humor Central is Bill Cosby's classic routine on the dialogue between God and Noah when Noah was instructed to build the ark according to specifications that are recorded in the Torah.

We saw Cosby in a live performance on stage in Lancaster, PA, last month. At 77, he's still as funny as we remember him on his LP records back in the '60s.

The Noah routine first appeared on Bill Cosby is a Very Funny Fellow...Right!, Cosby's debut comedy album. It was recorded live at the nightclub The Bitter End in New York City's Greenwich Village during early 1963. The album includes three sketches about Noah. The three sketches were also included in a collection titled The Best of Bill Cosby released in 1969 and then again in 2005.

Cosby appeared on TV and did the first Noah skit. We're including a video clip of his TV performance below. In our opinion, it's not quite as good or as complete as the record version which appears below the video, but it lets us see his facial expressions as he talks and argues with the Lord.

Enjoy them both!

(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.) 

Comedian Mark Schiff in a Stand-up Comedy Routine on Doctor's Visits

Los Angeles-Based comedian Mark Schiff performed at a stand-up comedy event in Chicago called Laugh Rx a couple of years ago. It was sponsored by UnitedHealthCare, and Mark delivered a series of health-related comedy routines. We'll share a few of them in the weeks ahead.

Mark Schiff has headlined in all the major casinos and clubs across the country and has appeared many times on both The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late Night with David Letterman. He has had both HBO and Showtime specials, and has been the featured act at the Montreal Comedy Festival.

Mark is one of the few stand-up comics in the business today who entertains his audiences without resorting to foul language. Today's routine is a series of observations about doctor's visits. Enjoy!

(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.)
 

A Joke to Start the Week - "Safe Deposit Box"

It's another Monday, and you know what that means. Time for another joke to start the week at Jewish Humor Central.

Once again we dip into the vast collection of Old Jews Telling Jokes. Today's joke teller is Julie Diane, a 67-year-old registered nurse.

Here's the setup: Fannie and Rachel are sitting in Fannie's kitchen, at the kitchen table. They've just buried Fannie's husband, and it was not a marriage made in heaven. And then...

Enjoy!

(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.)
  

Jewish Traces in Unexpected Places: Pirke Avot (Ethics of the Fathers) Becomes a Zulu Song

Pirke Avot, the Talmud tractate known as Ethics of the Fathers, has been translated into many languages, but it took Eliezer Auerbach, a rabbi and composer from Johannesburg, South Africa to create an arrangement of a song in the Zulu language based on a famous passage in this Talmud volume. 

In Avot (2:20), it is written: Rabbi Tarfon would say: Hayom Katzer V'hamlacha meruba (The day is short, and the work is much.). Thuli Mazibuko translated the lyrics into Zulu..

Much of the attraction of the song is that Rabbi Eliezer Auerbach has joined with some of the best African singers in the Wits University Choir who managed to connect to the message and the values taken from Jewish sources, and transfer these through the song to the masses. The African language words fit with the rhythm and melody perfectly and a Zulu song was born.

The video below shows Rabbi Auerbach singing the song with a group of his students. If you want to hear it sung by the Wits University Choir and orchestra, click on the play button at the bottom of the Amazon.com page.

The Zulu lyrics are:
I langa I langa I langa lifisha. Nomsebenzi benzi moningi.
Basebenzi baya vilapa iholo labo labo lilingi.
I langa lifishi nomsebenzi moningi basebenzi baya vilapa iholo labo lilingi umphati uyaququzela.

Enjoy!

(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.) 

 

(A tip of the kippah to Aliza Weisberger Kwiat for bringing this story to our attention.)