For Chanukah: "WHEN MESSIAH COMES" - Herschel Bernardi and Sheldon Harnick versions

Chanukah starts at sundown tomorrow. Or does it? Doesn't it? The Jewish people are indeed very smart, to keep track of their major holiday! The Christians know "December 25th" and shoot for it every time, but the Jews? Like the people themselves over 2,000 years, their major holiday keeps moving. "What date is it this time?" and "Who hit you in the head because you're Jewish, and won't be arrested for committing a hate crime? This neighborhood...maybe we need to move again..."

Fact is, more slavery and hate crimes have befallen the Jews than any other race, but since they don't blow up theaters or riot and break windows and steal sporting goods, nobody much gives a damn. That's a fact. But let's leaven the grimness with some typical humorous Jewish irony: the song "When Messiah Comes."

The song was cut from "Fiddler on the Roof." It seemed like the reason was that the song was just a tad too dark in acknowledging that the Messiah hasn't come despite all the misery (Jesus hasn't shown either). In Brooklyn, part of New York City, which has the largest Jewish population aside from Israel, many Orthodox Jews were convinced that Rabbi Schneerson was the Messiah, and after his death, he would somehow come back to life and prove it, and all would be well. No, it hasn't happened yet and he's been gone many years now.

So what happened to "When Messiah Comes?" In the show, the bedraggled, bewildered townspeople of Anatevka must flee for their lives due to a pogrom. Tevye acknowledges this misery, but muses that "When Messiah Comes..." things will finally improve. Only the song is loaded with bitterly humorous truths. Yes, "we're still here," but the Messiah's reason for the long delay? "How terrible I felt you'll never know!" Oy.

Audiences were not laughing. The song is, admittedly, not going to put a smile on the average religious person's face, but it came at a dramatic and sad moment in the show...the uprooted Jews having to trudge to hoped for safety in a foreign country, preferably America. Sheldon Harnick, who wrote the lyrics, is no stranger to irony. Some might remember the Kingston Trio's "Merry Minuet." In that one, Harnick wrote about the bloodthirsty world of countries warring with each other, but done with the joy of a grinning skull. I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Harnick, and I brought along the printed out "When Messiah Comes" for him to sign. I did admit I almost chose "Merry Minuet." Anyway....

"When Messiah Comes" is of course not on the original soundtrack (Zero Mostel) and not in the movie version (Topol), but when Herschel Bernardi took over for Mostel on Broadway, he was such a hit, Columbia put out a solo album in which he sang all the hit songs from the show AND added the missing song.

Here's a bit of levity to go with the unleavened bread that some might figure should be eaten around Chanukah time as well as Passover.

Sheldon Harnick is still with us, though he de-activated his Facebook page. Herschel Bernardi (October 30-1923-May 9, 1986) could still be alive and with us, except it either wasn't God's plan, or there is no God. Or God is selective about who gets to be 100 and how miserable it is to actually be that age. Is the pandemic just another test before the Earth is saved and pollution and over-population and war cease? Will people stop getting awful diseases or shoot each other, and live hundreds of years instead of popping off routinely at 70 or 80 or even at birth? We may not know for sure until Messiah comes.

HERSCHEL BERNARDI VERSION

SHELDON HARNICK VERSION