Plum Crazy

Tonight is the last night of Chanukah. So tonight we shall have two songs to remind us that there are things more valuable than the pure material. The first song, Kum Aher Du Filozof (Come here, you philosopher), is of someone reminding a young man of just that. The young man is a great inventor who is very proud of himself. But, the young man is reminded, there is wisdom to be learned beyond just your inventions.

The second song is one that is probably familiar to even non-Jews, Dona Dona. I'm sure most of us learned the English words (On a wagon, bound for market, lies a calf with a mournful eye. High above him, there's a swallow, winging swiftly through the sky. How the winds are laughing; they laugh with all their might. Laugh and laugh the whole day through and half the summer's night. Dona, dona...) in school. Symbolically, this song represents the plight of the Russian Jews during the pogroms. But also, to me, this song represents freedom of the mind. Calves are easily bound and slaughtered, but those who treasure freedom, like the swallow have learned to fly.

One last happy Chanukah to all!