Tag: Days of Awe

I am intrigued by disagreement among sources, including origins for a piece of music. So, I am sharing here some things I recently discovered trying to find the right citation for “Return Again,” often sung during the Days of Awe.

The song seems to have begun, as many compositions of Shlomo Carlebach (1925 – 1994), z”l, apparently did, as a wordless niggun. (See brief note on Carlebach‘s controversial legacy with links to more information.)

Shlomo Carlebach put Hebrew lyrics (from festival musaf) to the tune:

V'hashev kohanim leavodatam 
velevi'im leshiram ulezimram 
ve'hashev yisrael linveihem
[Restore the priests to their service,
the Levites to their song and psalmody,​ 
and Israel to their habitatio​ns.]

[See Zemirot Database and, e.g., Spotify.]

English lyrics, lawsuit, citations

English lyrics came later. Rafael Simcha (Ronnie) Kahn says he wrote them, and this short video shows Carlebach citing “our friend Ronnie Kahn” for the English.

In 2019, Kahn filed suit against Shlomo’s daughters, Nechama and Nedara, over ownership of the song. Kahn vs. Carlebach, claims there was a joint copyright filed in the 1970s, improperly amended later. In June 2023, a US District Court Judge upheld Kahn’s right to sue, while also dismissing some claims. (See also CaseText and Archive.org.)

Zemirot Database for the English notes permission from Nechama Carlebach and cites Shlomo as (sole) author.

Shaina Noll’s (1992) version credits S. Carlebach and The Carlebach Family.

A number of sources in the last five years or so list S. Carlebach for the tune and R. Kahn for the lyrics.

More background

Cantor/composer Jeff Klepper shares some history here on a 2002 listserv, Hanashir. (Klepper’s slightly dated website; bio at Temple Sinai; see also Hava Nashira).

The Hanashir note includes different lyrics attributed to Rafael Simcha Kahn:

"Return again, Return again,
Return to the home of your soul; 
You who have strayed, Be not afraid, 
You're safe in the house of the Lord"

The note on the 2002 Hanashir list does not discuss the purported lyric shift, from “You who have strayed…in the house of the Lord” to “Return to who you are…born and reborn again.”

…The substantial differences might explain why the video (also linked above), identified as from 1976 and posted by Kahn, is cut off so early in the tune. (There could, of course, be many other reasons for the video’s length.)…

Hanashir does discuss one word change, however:

At a certain point, Shlomo, who started singing his niggun with Ronnie's words as well as the original Hebrew ones, changed the first verse to "...Return to the land of your soul"-- making it more of a (religious, obviously) Zionist verse and less of a general "spiritual" one. I [Robert Cohen] personally thought it was a change for the worse, as it particularized and narrowed whom it might speak to.  Ronnie's words, I thought, spoke to every Jew--as the verse in tefillah does.

Complex legacies

I [Virginia Spatz] personally find it fascinating that this (decades old) discussion focused on the shift from “home” to “land,” while assuming that liturgy about restoration of the Temple spoke to “every Jew.”

I find it fascinating that we have this archived discussion still — however informal it was at the time, and however fleeting it was assumed to be. I wonder, even as I participate in it, about the ethics of referencing a communication that was not written for long-term consumption.

I find it fascinating that the musical and Jewish worlds cannot easily answer the simple query: who wrote this song?

And I find it fascinating and important for us to consider how we honor and build on the work of those who came before us. What kinds of changes are appropriate, as we bring forward materials from the past, and what kinds of acknowledgements are needed?

Featured image is heading from legal filing: “United States District Court, Eastern District of New York. Ronnie Kahn, Plaintiff, -against- Neshama Carlebach and Nedara Carlebach, defendants.”