ZAIDY
by Moshe Yess
My Zaidy lived with us in my parents’ home
He used to laugh, he put me on his knee
And he spoke about his life in Poland
He spoke, but with a bitter memory
And he spoke about the soldiers who would beat him
They laughed at him, they tore his long black coat
And he spoke about a synagogue that they burnt down
And the crying that was heard beneath the smoke
CHORUS:
But Zaidy made us laugh, Zaidy made us sing
And Zaidy made a kiddush Friday night
And Zaidy, oh my Zaidy, how I loved him so
And Zaidy used to teach me wrong from right
His eyes lit up when he would teach me Torah
He taught me every line so carefully
He spoke about our slavery in Egypt
And how God took us out to make us free
But winter went by, summer came along
I went to camp to run and play
And when I got back home, they said “Zaidy’s gone.”
And all his books were packed and stored away
I don’t know how or why it came to be
It happened slowly over so many years
We just stopped being Jewish like my Zaidy was
And no one cared enough to shed a tear
CHORUS:
But many winters went by
And many summers came along
And now my children sit in front of me
And who will be the Zaidy of my children
Who will be their Zaidy, if not me
Who will be the Zaidy of our children
Who will be the Zaidy if not we
CHORUS
Hm. I don't think I ever heard any of that song except the chorus. Getting all the lyrics changes the tone quite a bit!
I just read it both ways, and yeah – considerably! What do you think of it?
Really hits home for me for a number of reasons. Only one of which is that my grandmother and several of my great aunts/uncles are survivors.
Exactly… same here.
Was just thinkin I wonder if any vids of that song on youtube?! Todays my zeidys yahrzeit!; (
Hi Tanya!
Don't know… Yahrtzeits are always hard…
Sweet song. All my grandparents, and even some of my great-grandparents, were born in the USA, so I don't have anything like this.
I wonder how much of the sadness it evokes pertains to generational change and modernity as such, i.e. not just for Jews. I guess all kinds of groups have "Zaidy" equivalents. Italian grandmothers who (I imagine) knew how to make pasta like no one else; Persian grandfathers who knew their land's proud history; Hindu families where the kids don't have altars at home when they grow up.
I see why these losses are things to mourn. But I take the post title as a rhetorical question–i.e. as saying NO ONE can be the zaidys for our children. Because that time is gone and when a generation passes, so does a direct connection to its experience. The Zaidy in the song experienced the Polish soldiers directly. But the exodus from Egypt is a long way back. And (most) Jewish life in Poland as described in the song is also now a thing of the past.
Maybe Ruchi's suggestion is that the 'unbroken tradition' theory goes beyond Torah to cultural Zaidy-like moments. But wouldn't it be a little weird to try to be the zaidy to your children that your zaidy was to you? it would be trying to re-create a past that just doesn't exist in the same way. We aren't in Poland (most of us on here) or Egypt. It does at some point become a story. Or a song. The song preserves it as a lost thing and mourns it. But mourning it is different than actually exhorting people to try to be a Zaidy in the same way as their Zaidy was to them.
I think it means the kiddush… the teachings… those are things we need to give our kids. No, I'm not Hungarian, but I still want to transmit what my Zaidy did. I will give my kids in my own way what my grandparents wanted to give us. After all, my family wasn't Hungarian forever. Right? Way back, we all lived in Israel…
Well now I am a zeidy though NOT THE ZEIDY in the song. It's just that my daughter had a a baby that makes me a "zeidy" and I have nothing to transmit since they are super frum and I am not
gee I know this thread is years old already but I was just browsing around and this last comment is so sad – ALL grandparents have what to offer their grandchildren, despite whatever differences may exist, and it the job of the generation in between – the parents of the grandchildren, to search for what that is, if it's not apparent. God brought each of us into the world through our particular parents and that is the root of our respect for them, regardless of whether or not they live up to other standards. I hope this family has found some way to have a richer and more respectful connection through the generations since the comment was written.