Kings and Queens

Cuando el rey Nimrod
 A sudenyu
 Landarico
 Vi azoy lebt der keyser?
 Amol iz geven a mayse
 Ventanas altas
  Adon olam
 Melave malke

The Bible tells us that Nimrod was a powerful king and hunter (Genesis, 10:8-12) and, according to the midrashim, the instigator of the Tower of Babel, which was to have challenged God's supremacy (Genesis 10:10; 11: 1-9). Abraham, the first person to believe in one God, was willing to stand up against Nimrod, the greatest representative of paganism. The written Bible does not indicate why Abraham was chosen to be father of the Jewish people; it is from the midrashim that we learn about Abraham's insight regarding monotheism, his miraculous birth and upbringing, and his struggle against Nimrod.

The song Cuando el rey Nimrod is based upon, although not identical to, the story as related in Me'am Lo'ez, the compendium of Biblical commentary which was popularly studied in the Sephardi diaspora in the 18^th and 19^th centuries. Based upon the Talmud, midrashim and folk literature, this was written – initially by Rabbi Yaakov Culi – in Ladino so as to be accessible to lay people.

Cuando el rey Nimrod belongs to the genre of coplas – songs in Ladino which are mainly (but not exclusively) associated with religious festivals and which convey an educational message. (See the articles below for more details).

When the Israelites insisted upon being ruled by a king, Samuel, quoting God's advice, prophesized very explicitly that this was not a good idea! [Samuel I, 8: 5-22]

How correctly did Samuel foretell the nature of the Israelite kingdom? Here is a list of the Kings of Israel, with references to Biblical verses regarding the historical narrative and God's judgment of whether they did good or evil. (Note that this is a Christian site, but, except for the right-hand column, it appears to be compatible with the Old Testament).

There have not been many Jewish queens to sing about. Our most famous queen, Esther - crowned by virtue of her marriage to King Ahasuerus of Persia - is the subject of many songs which are referred to in the lecture about Purim.

Two queens reigned in their own right: Athalia, Queen of Judah (c.842-835 BCE) and Salome Alexandra (Shlomtsion Hamalkah), the Hasmonean queen who reigned from 76–67 BCE. Other queens mentioned in the Bible were wives of kings; they were both Jewish (e.g., Michal, Saul's daughter who was married to David) and foreign (e.g., Jezebel, the Phoenician princess who was married to Ahab), and usually mentioned specifically because of their involvement in a message underlying the narrative.

Athalia's story is certainly not a model of exemplary behaviour (Kings II, 11; Chronicles II, 22:10 – 23), but it makes for wonderful musical drama, exploited masterfully in the oratorio by Handel. 

PAINTING: There was no master like Rembrandt to visualize and portray the heroes of the Bible. Paintings about David include "King David playing the harp to Saul", "The reconciliation of David and Absalom" and "Bathsheba reading King David's letter". Here are a number of links to Rembrandt's paintings and sketches:

The site "Jewish Heritage Online" features the figure of David in Medieval and Renaissance art and includes an article on a series of paintings of King David by American-Israeli artist Ivan Schwebel. Altogether, "Jewish Heritage Online" has some excellent features on different aspects of King David. 

 King David is regarded as ne'im zmirot Israel [sweet singer of Israel] because of his authorship of most of the Psalms and his unparalleled reputation as harpist and singer. He has also inspired songs in various genres, both religious and secular, portraying various aspects of his multifarious personality as well as his legacy as progenitor of the Messiah, as in the evergreen folksong David Melekh Yisrael.

Two Internet articles (in Hebrew) show how David is portrayed in Hebrew song: דוד המלך בשירה העברית החדשה [King David in new Hebrew song] and דמויות תנכיות בזמר העברי מאת עקיבא נוף/אלי אשד [Biblical characters in Hebrew song], by Akiva Nof, published on the Internet by Eli Eshed. One of Ofra Haza's early disks Shir Hashirim Besha'ashu'im was inspired by the Biblical "Song of Songs"; here is an early video of Ofra Haza singing Ballada Lamelekh (lyrics by Bezalel Aloni).

King David is also featured in two Ladino romansas: David y Goliath and David llora a Absalón (Triste está el rey David). The latter song is a lament which is sung on Tish'a be'Av: just as in the verse in Samuel II, 19, 1, David is overcome by the grief of his family tragedy, oblivious to what Absalom did to bring it about.

In Yiddish, Itsik Manger, author of Itsiks Midresh, has portrayed Biblical characters as ordinary folk, full of human foibles. Manger's songs about David include two of his women - Bathsheva and Abishag.

Kings, queens and nobility - whether historical, legendary or allegorical - are the heroes and heroines of romansas. The Sephardi Jews sang about medieval Spanish and European rulers (e.g., the 7th century King Rodrigo or the 11th hero El Cid), classic heroes and heroines (e.g., Helena of Troy), Biblical leaders (King David), as well as famous soldiers (Roland). In a very much later romansa set against the background of the Bulgarian struggle for independence, a Jewish mother blames her son's death on King Ferdinand for expelling the Jews from Spain. The queen referred to in the romansa Landarico, featured in this lecture, is believed to have been the adulterous wife of a 6th century Burgundian king, Chilperic I.

In another ironic song, Di blum, the great badkhn Eliakim Zunser (1836-1913) quotes Alexander "comforting" the poor, downtrodden Jewish flower: I would never, God forbid, take away your faith, I only want to polish you and gild you!" He was referring to Alexander I's attempts to convert the Jews: the "Society of Israelite Christians", founded in 1817. 

Here is a photographic exhibition of Russian Jewry, two historical overviews of the Jews in Russia, and two first-hand descriptions of life under the tsars:

Beyond the Pale: The History of the Jews in Russia [photographic exhibition]
Hein, A. Russia. The Jewish Virtual History Tour. 
History of the Jews in Russia and the Soviet Union. Wikipedia. 
Mary Antin: A Little Jewish Girl in the Russian Pale, 1890. Modern History Sourcebook. 
A Jewish Life Under the Tsars: The Autobiography of Chaim Aronson, 1825-1888 
Totowa, N.J.: Allanheld, Osmun & Co., 1983. Translated from the Hebrew by Norman Marsden.Reviewed by Ira Leibowitz.
Index of Russian Jewish sites

What can a Jewish person do to feel like a king? Mostly, he can daydream, as in the Yiddish folksong Der Kremer ("The Shopkeeper")! 

Actually, from the traditional point of veiw, Jewish life offers many occasions for a Jewish man to feel like a king: 

2) On Pesach, the Seder table is "fit for a king", and the father of the house "leans" to the left while drinking wine and eating as an act symbolizing emancipation and kingliness. (Focus: A Pesach Reader).

3) The Jewish bride and groom are traditionally regarded as king and queen, as we can see from the Midrash on Psalms 19:6: "A groom is like a king. Just as all praise the king for the seven days of a feast, so all praise the groom for the seven days of the feast. Just as a king wears clothes of honor, so the groom wears clothes of honor. Just as a king has joy and feasting before him all the time, so the groom has joy and feasting with him all seven days. Just as the king does not go out unaccompanied, so a groom doesn't go out un accompanied. Just as the king's face shines like the rays of the sun, so the face of the groom shines like the rays of the sun, as it is written, 'And [the sun] is like a groom emerging from his canopy.' (Psalms 19:5-6)." (Midrash Pirkei derebbe Eliezer, Ch.16). (The Jewish Ethicist).

Explicit mention of the bridegroom as king is made in the piyyut Ata emet chatanenu [You are truly our bridegroom], which is sung in Babylonian and Yemenite communities as the groom is lead to the Torah on the Shabbat following the wedding and during the week of Sheva Brachot [Seven Blessings]. As with other piyyutim sung in honor of the bridegroom, this one celebrates the groom's wisdom and fortune, and wishes the young couple a life filled with material and spiritual fulfillment.

4) Erev Shabbat is the traditional reminder of God's marriage with Israel (Riskin); so, by extension, the Jewish couple is regarded as king and queen at that time. (See below: "The Shabbat Queen").   

In traditional Spanish – and Sephardic – the walls and closed doors behind which respectable maidens were "cloistered" provided a challenge for intrepid lovers: we can infer this from many (often overlapping) folksong texts: e.g., Abrimi galanica, Avre tu puerta cerrada, Avre este abajour bijou, Por la tu puerta yo pasi. Sometimes the images take on metaphorical meaning: Las ventanas altas is traditionally sung at weddings as the couple enter their bridal chamber for la noche d'encierro [the night of confinement / incarceration / enclosure].

At times the lady is acquiescent; at times less so. Sometimes the lover is presentable; sometimes a drunkard. The Ladino song Abrimi galanica and the Yiddish song Brontshele both feature a dialog between a young man knocking at the door and the young lass who is afraid of a member of her family - father, mother, brother, etc. 

A feature of many of the "night visiting songs", besides the act of knocking at the door, is the sound of the cock crowing in the morning. In some songs this is simply a signal that it is time for the lover to leave (e.g., "I'm a Rover" [Roud 3135]). However, the bird often signifies that the lover is a ghost, returning to his human love until he is forced to leave at sunrise (e.g., "The Grey Cock" [Child 248, Roud 179] or "Blow the Candles Out" [Roud 135 / 368]). According to "The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs", "the idea that such revenants must go again 'from the world of pity to the world without pity' when the birds cry at dawn is an ancient folklore notion that has spread from the Orient, through the Balkans, as far west as Ireland."

An exquisite setting of the return of the ghostly soldier is Wo die schonen Trompeten blasen [Where the splendid trumpets play], one of the ballads in the Knaben Wunderhorn [Youth's Magic Horn] collection which Gustav Mahler set to music.
 

As we can see in the website "An Invitation to Piyut", there is an endless number of melodies to which this piyyut has been set. Are all settings suitable? Is it legitimate to sing a Jewish religious text in styles ranging from Gospel to hip-hop? These are not esoteric questions, but ones which are of concern today, in the twenty-first century, amongst Jews of different religious and cultural streams, as can be seen from recent entries in a Jewish Music Discussion List (December, 2007 - January, 2008). Have a look at some of the following versions of Adon Olam: do you think that "anything goes", or are there limits to the ways religious texts can be set and presented?

Many of these Kabbalistic concepts are embodied in the hymn sung to welcome Shabbat, Lecha Dodi [Come my beloved] written by Rabbi Shlomo HaLevi Alkabetz (c.1500-1580), one of the esteemed members of the Safed circle of scholars and mystics, which included Rabbi Yosef Caro, Rabbi Moshe Cordovero and Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, the holy Ari (Arizal). The author signed his name in the acrostic formed by the first letter of the first eight stanzas of the hymn.

The Shabbat queen enhances the spirit of this holy day, until, sadly, it is time for her to depart, and she is escorted out of the Jewish home with music in a Melave Malke [Accompanying the Queen] ceremony. (According to legend, the custom has its origin with King David, who was told by God that he would die on a Shabbat. When each Sabbath was over, David made a party to celebrate his survival. The nation at large rejoiced with him and adopted the practice of celebrating on Saturday night).

H.N. Bialik, expert folklorist as well as great poet, was concerned with preserving Jewish tradion in a society which was becoming essentially secularist:  the Oneg Shabbat [Shabbat Joy] gatherings he organized in Tel Aviv used to include study of texts and singing of old and new songs. Here is his Shabbat Hamalkah [Shabbat the Queen] set to a beautiful melody by Chaim Parchi.

Hebrew:  מלך ומלכה