The Back to School Niggun

[hatam_soferet]

Rosh Chodesh guest post from MarGavriel

In many Jewish communities, part of the blessing for each upcoming month is sung in a tune which is emblematic of that month. In the South German tradition, it is typically the last words of the prayer, beginning with לחיים ולשלום, which are chosen for this purpose. The cantor sings these words to the theme-tune of the month, and the congregation concludes the tune by responding אשרי יושבי ביתך עוד יהללוך סלה.

Thus, when blessing the month of Nisan, the words are sung to the Passover theme tune (Addir Hu); Sivan, the Shavuoth theme tune (Aqdamuth), etc.

But what about the month of Marheshvan? We typically do not associate any specific tune with this month. And thus, at KAJ of New York City today, the words in the blessing for the month of Marheshvan are simply sung to a neutral tune, associated with Psalm 126 (שיר המעלות בשוב ה’ את שיבת ציון). This was the case yesterday, when this prayer was recited.

However, in 19th-century Germany, there was a tune associated with this occasion. Shelomo Zalmen Geiger tells us the following, in דברי קהלות (a diary of the synagogal customs of the Frankfurt community for each day of the Jewish year), published in 1862, p. 363:

ונהגו החזני[ם] לנגן נגון שיש בו כעין נגון למוד גמ[רא], בברכת חדשי מרחשון ואייר, כי אחר סכות ואחר פסח היה דרך הרב להודיע לבחורי ישיבה הלכה בש”ס שילמדו בשקידות עם תוס[פות] ופוסקי[ם] ומפרשי[ם], ואחרי שבוע אמר הוא וכן לומדי[ם] אחרי[ם] לפני הבחורי[ם], מה שחדשו בהלכה הזאת. והמנהג הזה נקרא: הוצאת הלכה ותוספות. וע”כ נקרא גם הנגון הזה: נגון הלכה ותוס[פות].

And the cantors have the custom to sing a tune which is similar to the tune used in studying the Gemara, in the blessings for the months of Marheshvan and Iyyar. For after Sukkoth and after Pesah, the practice was for the rabbi to inform the young men studying in the yeshiva what halakha [=tractate] they should study diligently [in the upcoming semester], with Tosafoth and posqim and commentators. After a week, he and other scholars would tell the young men what innovative ideas they had come up with regarding this halakha. This custom was called hotza’ath halakha ve-thosafoth [“the bringing out of halakha and Tosafoth”], and therefore this tune is called “Niggun Halakha Ve-thosafoth” [“the tune of halakha and Tosafoth”].

In other words, the theme of the month of Marheshvan (and of Iyyar) is “Back to School”, after the long holiday break. And thus, the theme tune is the “Back to School” tune.

Here is the tune, as notated by Fabian Ogutsch, in his book Der Frankfurter Kantor (J. Kauffmann Verlag: Frankfurt am Main, 1930):

Click to see bigger.

Mirrored from hasoferet.com.

Comments

[lethargic_man]

Interesting. I must make a note and see if I can sing this in Assif this time next year!

<clicks on image> Oh, look at the jekkishe pronunciation in the transcription! (Because I almost always see transcriptions of Hebrew in standard pronunciation, transcribing Hebrew the way I pronounce it always seems wrong to me!)

Other things I noticed about the transcription: (a) the Hebrew they're transcribing from uses חטף פתח instead of שוא נע, hence the spelling "j'ha-la-lu-cho" rather than "j'ha-l'lu-cho", (b) They're using "ss" to represent initial "s", which never occurs in German; also "ë", which I'd not come across before in German, to represent צֵרֵי, which doesn't quite correspond to any sound in German.