I sing to my grandsons, one via the wonders of video "Skype-ing," and
the other up close and very personal. I perform the usual stuff mostly: "The Wheels on the Bus," "Old MacDonald,""Itsey-bitsey Spider", and "The Alphabet Song," with everyone's favorite line: "L-M-N-O-P."
One day, however, I found myself, singing a made-up ditty in Spanish
to my Jewish-Mexican-American, two and a half year-old, West Coast
grandson with a tune that seemed vaguely familiar but that I could
not, at first, place: "Yo tengo hambre ahora, Yo tengo hambre ahora, Yo tengo ha-ambre ahora, Yo tengo hambre, hambre, hambre ahoraaa." That, by the way, translates to: "I'm hungry now" which he usually is.
I searched my brain for the origins of the tune and discovered its
source in the long buried confines of my youthful synagogue attending
memories. It was the music to: "Heiveinu Sholom Aleichem." "Peace be with you" is how that translates, more or less. This is a nice sentiment that may explain its continued presence in my neuronal
liturgical coffers despite my having long ago strayed from the fold.