Royz, Royz, Vi Vayt Bistu

This Hassidic song describes how a secular song of foreign provenance evolved into one with a religious Hassidic concept of the Divine Presence and the Diaspora. According to Menakhem Kipnis, who published the song in 1925, the Rabbi Isaac Taub of Kaliv, Hungary, was strolling in the fields when he heard a shepherd singing a song “Ruzha, ruzha, yak ti daleka!” (Rose, Rose, how far away you are). The rabbi altered the words to make the song expressive of longing for the Divine Presence.

In his column “Shprakhvinkl” in the Jewish Forward (August 30, 1976) Wolf Younin brought the Hungarian original together with a Yiddish-Hebrew version: “Erdo, erdo de magas vagy,/ Rozsam, rozsam de mesze vagy/ Ha az erdot levaghatnam/ Tied volnek edes babam/ Ha az erdot levaghatnam/ Tied volnek edes babam.” /”Gales, gales, vi greys bistu/ Shkhine, shkhine, vi vayt bistu/ llu min hagolis hoytsienu/ Hoinu shninu yakhad oz.” Menasha Unger wrote a story about the song entitled “How the Rabbi of Kalev Freed a Song” where he has an additional stanza. On September 27, 1976 Masch a Benya Matz cited a version that Zalman Shazar, former president of Israel, sang: “Vaid, vald, vi greys bistu,/ Kale, kale vi vayt bistu,/ Az der vald volt vern avekgenumen,/ Volt ikh mit der kale
tsuzamengekumen.”