[E-erokh nivi. Mi-kehilah]. (Berit-milah)

[E-erokh nivi. Mi-kehilah]. (Berit-milah) [I will raise my harp. From the community]. (Circumcision ceremony). Performed by hazzan Halevi [from Aleppo] accompanied by a few singers on July 16, 1913. Cylinder # 630.         1:50

This is one of the best recordings in the collection in terms of quality and completeness. It is a very well-known melody from Aleppo and Jerusalem for a famous poem by the Moroccan Hebrew poet R. David Hassin (1727-1792) that rapidly spread to the Eastern Jewish communities. A poem in honor of Elijah the Prophet, it was sung in circumcisions but also fits the ceremony of Havdalah (someone at the end of the recording shouts “shavu’a tov”, “have a good week”). This melody, that appears to be a variant of the North Moroccan one, is still customary in Jerusalem.