Hava Nagila Harry Belafonte

When I was in the seventh grade way back in the 1900s, kids today think the 1900s was a long time ago, of coarse that was before were born and come think about it, 1973 was a long time ago. Seventh grade meant I went to Ramsey Jr. High so it was quite a change from elementary school where we had the same teacher all day. There were seven periods with seven different teachers. Ramsey was a lot bigger with over 1,000 students. In the seventh grade one of these periods was divided up to three twelve week classes. My first twelve week class was drafting the next woodworking and the last was a music class. I liked music class best because there were girls in it. The other twelve week classes for girls were sewing and cooking you know girl stuff. Remember this was way back in the 1900s! Music class was not like chorus, we sat at desks and the teacher, who was the chorus teacher Miss Duvall, taught about music. One lesson was on today’s song Hava Nagila (who says you’ll never use what you learned in school again!) it turns out it’s Jewish! That’s why they sung it in the bar Mitzah scene in The Godfather. Here is one translation I found on the internet it turns out even the translation is controversial yes you can find great arguments on the internet on how to translate the song.

HAVA NAGILA (Literal English Translation)

Come let’s dance, come let’s dance,
Come let’s dance, and be merry!
Come let’s dance, come let’s dance,
Come let’s dance, and be merry!
Come let’s whirl, come let’s whirl,
Come let’s whirl, and be merry!
Come let’s whirl, come let’s whirl,
Come let’s whirl, and be merry!
Rise, rise, brothers!
Rise, brothers, with a glad heart.
Rise, brothers, with a glad heart.
Rise, brothers, with a glad heart.
Rise, brothers, with a glad heart.
Rise, brothers!
Rise, brothers, with a glad heart.

Just imagine that I’m back in the seventh grade way back in the 1900s and their was a boy that went to Ramsey and his name was Abel, that’s right he’s Adam’s boy. There was another boy who was the biggest bully in the whole school and let’s call him Donny. Well in turns out that Donny decided he would make fun of Adam’s boy Abel name. Abel’s last was Schiff, so Donny, with the mind of a seventh grader started calling Him Abel Schitt! All of the other kids thought that was funny so they started calling poor Abel; Schitt just like Donny taught them to do. One boy that really loved to call Abel Schitt, let’s call him Timmy, anyway his dad found out about it and it turns out little Timmy’s dad was a Southern Baptist pastor and when his dad found out little Timmy was in BIG trouble. He told little Timmy that he had never been so ashamed of him, that he should never make fun of anyone by calling them a name like that. Then Timmy’s dad said you do know that Schiff is a Jewish name and Donny was calling him that because he was Jewish? Little Timmy had no idea that was why Donny was always making fun of Abel. The principal found out and called Donny’s dad, let’s call him Freddy, into his office. But as it turns out Freddy had been arrested at a KKK rally before Donny was even born! He told the principal that his Donny never did anything wrong and there’s nothing wrong with calling a filthy Jew Schitt!

I just made that story up it seems that little Timmy didn’t learn his lesson on how to treat Jews, or for that matter people in general. Now it turn’s out that little Timmy followed in his father’s footsteps and became a Southern Baptist pastor. But maybe because this story didn’t really happen little Timmy posted on Face Book, for the world to see, a picture of Senator Chuck Schumer with a distorted face and a what Trump supporters would call a funny meme under it. I have remained silent with for the past Trump years with all his unChristlike posts. But I could not remain silent any longer, when a Southern Baptist pastor posts a picture of the most powerful Jew in the United States of America, and distorts his face in order to make fun of him, and I wish little Timmy would give me chapter and verse where making fun of anyone is alright with Jesus. But if little Timmy wants to see distorted faces and bodies of Jews the Nazis have already provided the world with thousands of pictures of millions of bodies. I then made on first comment on one of his posts, I said; Is a pastor of a Southern Baptist church making fun of a Jew? I waited a while and yes I was just getting madder by the minute. So I made another post this time I posted: Is it wrong that Trump called Rep. Adam Schiff Adam Schitt? That must have got the attention of one of his members of his church, and he posted how great of a man and cares for everyone and other stuff along that lines. Did I reply to that comment? Yes I did, I replied; A pastor should share the truth and love of Jesus Christ not the lies and hate of Donald Trump. After that little Timmy removed the post.

This is America people have the freedom of speech and if your an American our country gives you the right to almost anything you want . But if your a Christian Jesus does not give you the freedom to say anything you want. There’s an old saying I heard in church a long time. Jesus doesn’t give you the freedom to do what you want. Jesus gives you the freedom to do what you should.

I’m sure little Timmy will tell how much he loves and support the nation of Israel but it appears that love does not extend to the Jewish people. I’ll have a lot more to say about that in the future. Thanks for reading this and if you have a pastor on your Face Book feed share this post with him.