LYRIC
THE MAN FROM VILNA- Journeys ft. Abie Rotenberg & Lev Tahor- Composed by Abie Rotenberg, Lyrics by Abie Rotenberg & Deborah Chinskey-Wapniak Silbiger- Journeys 4
VERSE 1:
I met a man last Sunday, who was on his way back home
from a wedding in Chicago, and was traveling alone.
He said he came from Vilna, a survivor I could tell
and I helped him with his suitcase, he could not walk very well.
A steward gave us coffee as we settled on the plane
and I asked him why he bothers, at his age there’d be no blame.
He said “no Simcha is a burden, though I miss my dear late wife”
and then he shared with me a story that has changed my view of life:
CHORUS 1:
“We danced round and round in circles as if the world had done no wrong
from evening until morning, filling up the shul with song.
Though we had no Sifrei Torah to clutch close to our hearts
in their place we held the future of a past so torn apart.
VERSE 2:
I remember liberation, joy and fear both intertwined
where to go and what to do, and how to leave the pain behind?
My heart said ‘go to Vilna’, dare I pray yet once again
for the chance to find a loved one, or perhaps a childhood friend?
It took many months to get there, from the late spring to the fall
and as I, many others, close to four hundred in all,
and slowly there was healing, darkened souls now mixed with light
when someone proudly cried out, ‘Simchas Torah is tonight!’
CHORUS 2:
We danced round and round in circles as if the world had done no wrong
from evening until morning, filling up the Shul with song.
Though we had no Sifrei Torah to clutch close to our hearts
in their place we held the future of a past so torn apart.
VERSE 3:
We ran as one towards the shul, our spirits in a trance
and we tore apart the barricade, in defiance we would dance.
But the scene before our eyes shook us to the core
scraps of siddur, bullet holes, bloodstains on the floor.
Turning to the eastern wall, we looked on in despair
there’d be no scrolls to dance with, the holy ark was bare.
Then we heard two children crying, a boy and girl whom no one knew
and we realized that no children were among us but those two.
CHORUS 3:
We danced round and round in circles as if the world had done no wrong
from evening until morning, filling up the Shul with song.
Though we had no Sifrei Torah to gather in our arms
in their place we held those children, the Jewish people would live on.
We danced round and round in circles as if the world had done no wrong
from evening until morning, filling up the shul with song.
Though we had no Sifrei Torah to clutch and hold up high
in their place we held those children, Am Yisrael Chai”.
We danced round and round in circles as if the world had done no wrong
from evening until morning, filling up the shul with song.
Though we had no Sifrei Torah to gather in our arms
in their place we held those children, the Jewish people would live on
Am Yisrael Chai.
The Jewish people would live on.
The Jewish people WILL live on.