Chaim's song: Raisins and Almonds

As a ten-year-old, I discovered Theodore Bikel and Geula Gill's album Songs from Just About Everywhere on my parent's living room bookshelf. 
I played it over and over, and their songs were forever etched in my memory. Thirty-five years later, I found myself haunted by one tune in particular: Raisins and Almonds. This lullaby, written as a show tune in 1880, evokes the scene of a widow, comforting her only infant son among the ruins of the Temple. She rocks him, and intones his destiny as a trader of raisins and almonds. Hope in the wake of disaster. Optimism tinged with melancholy. This song has widespread appeal among European Jews.

My grandmother sang this song with my dad as a child, and singing it with my dad seemed like a good way to get a little conversation about his musical memories going.


Here's a very touching version by Benedetta Manfriani




Rozhinkes mit Mandlen (Raisins and Almonds) in A minor


Am                          Em     Am
In dem beis hamikdosh, in a vinkl cheider
Em                    B7      Em
Zitzt di almoneh, bas tzion alein
Em       C                 G7      C
Ihr ben yochidl yidelen viegt zi keseder
G7              Am       E7     Am
Zingt ihm tzum shlofn a liedele shein.
Dm         Am
Alelulelulelu(x2)

Am                 E7
Unter yideles viegele,
Am                  G7   C
Shteit a klor vaise tzigele
    Dm6          E7     Am
Dos tzigele iz gefohren handlen
Dm                  Am
Dos vet zain dain beruf
Dm6   E7      Am
Rozhinkes mit mandlen
E7                 Am
Shlof-zshe yideleh shlof

TRANSLATION:

In the temple, in the corner of a chamber,

The widow The Daughter of Zion is sitting all alone.

As she rocks her only son Yidele to sleep,

She sings him a pretty song, a lullaby.

Under Yidele's cradle, there stands a snow-white kid

that has been to market.

It will be your calling, too -

Trading in raisins and almonds,

And now sleep, Yidele, sleep

(Translation thanks to Raquel Merlot )