Tracks
Liner Notes
F. Greenspan's Kemaḥ min hasak (Flour from the Sack), to Hebrew words by S. Bass, is a simple children’s Hanukka song. Its reference to the frying of latkes, or pancakes, in oil for Hanukka might elude many whose own family tradition from Europe eventually came to specify potato pancakes. Here, it can be assumed that the sack contains wheat (or other grain) flour. Customs vary among ingrained Jewish regional practices, however. Potatoes or potato flour are unrelated in or of themselves to Hanukka significance. The operative element is the substance in which the Hanukka food item is fried: the specific food could in theory be anything fried in oil, since the oil is the symbolic reminder of the rededication of the Temple and the rekindling of the candelabra after the Maccabean victory. In Israel, for example, the standard, ubiquitous culinary sine qua non of Hanukka is the enjoyment of jam-filled doughnuts (sufganyot)—deep fried, of course, in oil. The artistic choral arrangement of the otherwise single-line melody is by Cheryl Bensman-Rowe.
Lyrics
Flour from the sack,
Oil from the pitcher,
It's Hanukka today,
A pleasant and beautiful holiday.
La, la, la ....
Flour from the sack,
Oil from the pitcher,
Let us prepare pancakes for the holiday.
We'll add an egg from the basket,
More sugar, thin and fine;
Come to the table,
We'll eat pancakes.
Credits
arranger: Cheryl Bensman-RoweComposer: F. Greenspan
Performers: The Western Wind
Publisher: Transcontinental
Translation: Gerald C. Skolnik
