Dudele of Rabbi Itzhak from Berdichev

R. Zalmanov incorporated this song (or rather cantorial piece) into his collection, though it can hardly be considered as a Chabad tune. Rabbi Levy Itzhak was a friend of the Alter Rebbe of Chabad and did not found a dynasty of his own.

This song was not transmitted and developed by lay people but by trained cantors and contains numerous features recalling the cantorial style (hazzanut). Only its lively coda resembles a niggun. The lyrics in Yiddish attributed to R. Levy Itzhak are a paraphrase of the verse "Ve-ana mi-panekha evrah?" (And where shall I flee from thy presence?", Psalms 139, 7).

Yair Harel, who grew up in a Middle Eastern musical tradition, sings this typical Eastern European song in Yiddish. His vocal rendition, succeeds in eliminating some cantorial mannerisms that characterize the performances of this tune. In this accompaniment and arrangment, Andre Hajdu does much of the same by refraining from common harmonizing by maintaining instead a constant drone in the bass while creating a dialogue with the singer in the melody played by the right hand.