Hava Nagila

Well, I had a marvelous time last night, did youse? I woke up with slightly sore arms from Torah toting and the stop-trainwreck-yank rhythm of the horah as it first got going and with Hava Nagila stuck in my head.

So, I hit You Tube. Jackpot.

I wouldn't have necessarily put ice skating and Hava Nagila together, but Evgeni Plushenko proves it can be done. And, who knew we had out very own Jewish Beatles to ding Hava Nagila for us? This very earth young man is plucking it out on a lyre, while these dudes ar, uh, almost beating the song to death. My personal fave is Meshugga Beach Party's Miserlou version. Here is Dalida's French and Hebrew version that's so La Dolce Vita it almost hurts. Oh, and here's darling Rika Zarai on French TV. Here's a pretty standard version (with usual milling-around background noise), but I love it because it's (a) by the Ned Flanders Band and (b) because of the woman who is all screw you guys, I'll dance by myself. Uh, and here is a sort of techno-Bollywood Hava Nagila that I don't know what to make of. It's catchy though. 

Then, these dudes are playing our beloved simcha song by making their hands fart.  So, there's that.