A New Feature

Recently I had cause to notice that there are many, many, many, I mean many, versions of the traditional Hebrew folk song, "Hava Nagilah" on YouTube. Hava Nagilah is the most well known Jewish tune out there. The versions I've chosen for a new posting subject called "The Daily Hava Nagilah" are in my opinion very interesting, done in many very different styles and I think you will find them enjoyable. 

A little general background first.  From Wikipedia:

"Hava Nagila" (הבה נגילה in Hebrew) is a Hebrew folk song, the title meaning "Let us rejoice". It is a song of celebration, especially popular amongst irreligious Jewish and Roma communities. In popular culture, it is used as a metonym for Judaism, and is a staple of band performers at Jewish festivals.

The melody is a Hassidic melody of uncertain origin. The commonly used text was probably composed by Abraham Zevi (Zvi) Idelsohn^[1][2] in 1918 to celebrate the British victory in Palestine during World War I as well as the Balfour Declaration.

A transliteration, spelling of the title and lyrics varies.

Transliteration	Hebrew Text	English Translation
Hava nagila	הבה נגילה	Let's rejoice
Hava nagila	הבה נגילה	Let's rejoice
Hava nagila venis'mecha	הבה נגילה ונשמחה	Let's rejoice and be happy
	(repeat stanza once)
Hava neranenah	הבה נרננה	Let's sing
Hava neranenah	הבה נרננה	Let's sing
Hava neranenah venis'mecha	הבה נרננה ונשמחה	Let's sing and be happy
	(repeat stanza once)
Uru, uru achim!	!עורו, עורו אחים	Awake, awake, brothers!
Uru achim b'lev sameach	עורו אחים בלב שמח	Awake brothers with a happy heart
	(repeat line three times)
Uru achim, uru achim!	!עורו אחים, עורו אחים	Awake, brothers, awake, brothers!
B'lev sameach	בלב שמח	With a happy heart

The first version of HN that I am posting is a Polish heavy metal version, from the group "Rootwater." If you head over to the actual link to the video at YouTube, in the comments you will find a partial and somewhat disputed translation of the additional lyrics used, which are in both Hebrew and Polish.  It is suggested that they are about having had to hide one's Jewish identity in Poland to avoid persecution.  The song, which is usually happy and light hearted, is well, heavy, metal and head banging here. I have to admit, There's something about it I like, though it's not the style of music I generally listen to. Well, maybe "like" is not quite the right word...

This means that since I'll be posting at least one YouTube video daily, this site will look all disordered and out of whack if you are using Firefox as your browser.  I've tried, but I can't seem to get the coding to where it looks right on that browser when I post a video.  All others are ok, I think.

With no further ado, here's Rootwater, in a grand performance of that old Jewish audience pleaser, Hava Nagilah: