8 Nights of Ruckus and Romping - 3) Scythians Havah Nagila

Ahhhhhhhh!!!!   Tradition.  I discovered this band at a Wakarusa Music Festival on the top of Mulberry Mountain in North West Arkansas.  I was sitting at my camp enjoying the company of some fine folk when I heard the Havah Nagila coming at me.   It was quite the shocker.  The last think I expected at the top of a mountain in Arkansas was to hear a traditional Jewish celebration song.  Yet, there it was.

The band was called Scythian and was a bit of an unknown to the circles that attend that festival.  They did not have the best time slot, however they did have two shows with a better time for the second set.   I saw both shows and danced my tush off. 

There music was a mix of Klesmer, Celtic, Blue Grass, and Classical.   It was what I would call stomping music.   If a person could sit still with them playing they would have to be working hard at it.  I looked from dude to dude in the band and thought, 'Are they Jewish or do they just play a lot of weddings?'   

The reality was that it did not matter either way.  The song was traditional, and when I heard it I just knew, deep down inside, that they had found a frequency that just resonated with my Jeiwsh soul. At every simcha, (jewish celebration),  the Havah Nagila is played, from weddings to bar mitzvah. It is sung and danced to, running in circles until someone pulls a muscle or falls over the brides dress.  

I remember back in 1992, I was on on shore in the Bahamas during a cruise of the Caribbean.  It was a work trip and the co-worker I was hanging out with had attracted these two guys.  They were from somewhere in rural small town America.  My co-worker was rather attracted to one for them.   The other was an ignorant fool.  He kept making Jewish jokes, and let me tell you, they were not funny to me.   I was not impressed and was looking for an escape route.  

We were haning in this bar in the Bahamas, and I was contemplating walking back to the boat by myself when these two Israeli guys came up to me. One said very point blank, in a beautiful Israeli accent, "You do not have to put up with that."  He took my hand and escorted me back to our ship.  Their English was not so great and my Hebrew was even worse.  I realized that the only Hebrew I really remembered was either a prayer or the Havah Nagilah.    

These two people made a huge impact on me.  They had the Bravado to just walk up to me, take my hand and calmly escort me out of the uncomfortable situation I was in.  They did not worry that these two big American guys, well into their cup, would do something.  All they knew was that in their limited English, the words these guys were using were antisemitic.  

They did not know me, however they knew somehow that I was Jewish.  They protected me as part of their tribe.   We hung out for the next two days.  They inspired me to want to go to Israel and learn more about these strong, funny, powerful people.   They were the catalyst that sent me on my journey that lasted the better part of two years.  They gave me the strength to leave a bad relationship, buy a backpack and board a plane across the big pond.  The journey connected me indisputably with my Judaism in a deep resonating way.   So when I hear the Hava Haglia I know I am home.