{"id":2399,"date":"2016-07-20T21:03:53","date_gmt":"2016-07-21T04:03:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/?p=2399"},"modified":"2016-07-20T21:03:53","modified_gmt":"2016-07-21T04:03:53","slug":"levi-the-leviathan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/2016\/07\/levi-the-leviathan","title":{"rendered":"Levi, the Leviathan"},"content":{"rendered":"

About ten years ago, at a Jews in the Woods gathering nearby the Pearlstone Retreat Center in Maryland, I offered my first shiur <\/em>on biblical mythology and on the Leviathan and the Behemoth. (I subsequently wrote up some of what I talked about in several posts back here<\/a> and here<\/a> and here<\/a> on the Omphalos, the blog formerly titled “the Leviathan and the Behemoth.”)<\/p>\n

Someone came up to me afterward, asking whether I was familiar with this song that she had heard growing up in her Reform Jewish circles and summer camps — “Levi, the Leviathan<\/strong>.” I got so excited! A song about the Leviathan! With a surprise connection to the biblical name Levi! I was fascinated but alas, I couldn’t find any more information about the song.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, I was searching for a trio of 1970s era children’s psychology animated shorts for TV starring Puff the Magic Dragon, and after finding them on DVD,\u00a0 began to wonder again about what ever happened to “Levi, the Leviathan.” I did some Internet sleuthing and behold, a Jewish summer camp had put together an informal song book complete with lyrics and guitar tabs and there it was, numbered song 152, “Levi, the Leviathan” by Rabbi Larry Milder of Congregation Beth Emek<\/a>, Pleasanton, California. Here it goes:<\/p>\n

152. LEVI THE LEVIATHAN
\nby Larry Milder<\/p>\n

VERSE 1
\nOne fine day while sailing on the sea,
\nThree Israeli fishermen on the Sea of Galilee,
\nHauled in their nets, and much to their surprise,
\nOut popped a giant head with two enormous shining eyes,<\/p>\n

CHORUS
\nLevi, Levi the Leviathan, swimming in the Sea of Galilee,
\nLevi wonders where his friends all went,
\nEver since the day they left, sad is he<\/p>\n

VERSE 2
\n\u201cWhere oh where can my companions be?
\nI\u2019ve been searching high and low since fifteen hundred B.C.E.
\nHave you seen my friend the behemoth?
\nI must have told him a hundred times, don\u2019t take your life preserver off!\u201d<\/p>\n

VERSE 3
\n\u201cEver since the year we had the flood,
\nAll of the creatures I used to know have gone and sunk into the mud,
\nIt grieves me so, I feel a pang of guilt,
\nWhen every now and then I see a claw sticking up from under the silt.\u201d<\/p>\n

VERSE 4
\n\u201cHere I swim, an orphan of the sea,
\nSo why don\u2019t you take your nets away and let me paddle peacefully?\u201d
\nUp splashed his tail, and washed the boat ashore,
\nAnd three Israeli fishermen will sail the Galilee no more<\/p>\n

ENDING
\nLevi, Levi the Leviathan swimming in the Sea of Galilee.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hoping Rabbi Milder might have a recording to share, I looked him up and wrote to him for more information:<\/p>\n

Hello Rabbi Milder, I’m a Jewish mythology fanatic and was thrilled to learn at a retreat a decade ago that there was a Leviathan song. Alas, no one knew the words to it but this evening after shabbat I decided to look again and found that someone had uploaded the lyrics and the chords and attributed the song to you. I still don’t know what it sounds like but now that I’m reading the lyrics I feel a strong Puff the Magic Dragon vibe from it.<\/p>\n

I wanted to ask you how this song came about. I’d like to share it with more people so I’m also wondering if there’s a recording and whether you might grant me permission to distribute it under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license through an open-source Jewish liturgy project I direct, the Open Siddur.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I was overjoyed when I discovered his reply the next day in my inbox:<\/p>\n

I wrote Levi the Leviathan during my time studying at HUC in Israel. I should have been studying, that is. Got some good songs out of it, though.<\/p>\n

Yes, it does have a kind of Puff the Magic Dragon vibe, albeit with a touch of irony. It is nothing more than a flight of fancy. I figured that if Loch Ness had a monster, so should the Kinneret.<\/p>\n

I released the song on a 1985 cassette call “Rats, Leviathans & Other Tails.” It was my first recording. (I am currently recording album #5. Not exactly pumping them out.)<\/p>\n

I never released the song on CD, and to date, I have not made the recording available for download. However, every now and then someone asks, and your inquiry is just the motivation I need to work through the technical challenges of making it available. Once I get that resolved, I’ll have the recording available through oysongs.com<\/a>, where much of my other music is available.<\/p>\n

The sheet music, however, is included in Shireinu<\/em>, the anthology of contemporary Jewish music published by the Reform movement. Check with the American Conference of Cantors, as I believe they are currently selling that book.<\/p>\n

You are welcome to reprint the lyrics. The lyrics you have are correct. I would ask that you not reprint the chords, however. It helps me sell music to have those accessible through printed music.<\/p>\n

The attribution should be:
\n\u00a91985 Laurence Elis Milder<\/p>\n

I am really honored that you got in touch with me. Best of luck with this magnificent project.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

With gratitude and apologies to Rabbi Miller, here’s my adaptation of his song tweaked better to reflect the myth of the separation of the two primordial lovers representing the upper and lower waters, found in Midrash Konen.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

LEVI THE LEVIATHAN
\nverses adapted from the original song by Larry Milder<\/p>\n

VERSE 1<\/p>\n

One fine day while sailing through the myst,
\nThree fishermen caught in a storms fist,
\nHauled in their nets, and much to their surprise,
\nOut popped a ginormous head with two eldritch glowing eyes,<\/p>\n

CHORUS<\/p>\n

Levi, Levi the Leviathan, swimming a distant sea,
\nLevi wonders where her friend once went,
\nDoes he miss her like she does him?
\nMust she wait till the end of time to see him again<\/p>\n

VERSE 2
\n\u201cWhere oh where can my friend be?
\nI\u2019ve been searching high and low since the first Jubilee
\nHave you seen my friend Behemot?
\nI must have told him a hundred times, keep hold of me!\u201d<\/p>\n

VERSE 3
\n\u201cEver since the second day,
\nAll these new creatures emerged from the mud,
\nBut it grieves me so, I feel so sad,
\nWhen every now and then, I’m reminded of my best bud.\u201d<\/p>\n

VERSE 4
\n\u201cHere I swim, the queen of the sea,
\nSo why don\u2019t you take your nets away and let me live peacefully?\u201d
\nUp splashed her tail, and washed the boat ashore,
\nAnd three fishermen will sail the sea no more<\/p>\n

ENDING<\/p>\n

Levi, Levi the Leviathan swimming a distant sea.
\nLevi, Levi the Leviathan swimming the Furthest Sea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About ten years ago, at a Jews in the Woods gathering nearby the Pearlstone Retreat Center in Maryland, I offered my first shiur on biblical mythology and on the Leviathan and the Behemoth. (I subsequently wrote up some of what I talked about in several posts back here and here and here on the Omphalos, . . . → Continue reading: Levi, the Leviathan<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1492,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,15],"tags":[27,31,252],"class_list":["post-2399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mythology","category-music","tag-leviathan","tag-behemoth","tag-primordial-beings","odd"],"yoast_head":"\nLevi, the Leviathan • Aharon's Omphalos<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/2016\/07\/levi-the-leviathan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Levi, the Leviathan • Aharon's Omphalos\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"About ten years ago, at a Jews in the Woods gathering nearby the Pearlstone Retreat Center in Maryland, I offered my first shiur on biblical mythology and on the Leviathan and the Behemoth. 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His advocacy for open-source strategies in the Jewish community has been written about in the Atlantic Magazine, the Yiddish Forverts, Tablet, and Haaretz. He is particularly interested in pedagogies for advancing ecological wisdom, developing creative and emotional intelligence, and realizing effective theurgical praxes. He welcomes your comments, personal messages, and kind words. 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Writing this took me most of yesterday evening and much of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mythology"","block_context":{"text":"Mythology","link":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/category\/yiddishkeit\/mythology"},"img":{"alt_text":"Behemoth and Leviathan 1825, reprinted 1874 by William Blake 1757-1827","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/05\/William-Blake-Behemoth-and-Leviathan-1825-reprinted-1874-Public-Domain.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/05\/William-Blake-Behemoth-and-Leviathan-1825-reprinted-1874-Public-Domain.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/05\/William-Blake-Behemoth-and-Leviathan-1825-reprinted-1874-Public-Domain.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/05\/William-Blake-Behemoth-and-Leviathan-1825-reprinted-1874-Public-Domain.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":135,"url":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/2008\/05\/the-two-lovers","url_meta":{"origin":2399,"position":1},"title":"The Two Lovers","author":"Aharon N. Varady","date":"May 30, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"On this trip, I had the pleasure of sharing a day trip between D.C. and N.Y.C. with a friend of an acquaintance. As it happens, by which I mean, by the tender coincidences blessed upon me in the happenstance of creation, this fellow, Eli K-W, also happens to love Jewish\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mythology"","block_context":{"text":"Mythology","link":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/category\/yiddishkeit\/mythology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":136,"url":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/2008\/06\/behemot-and-bahamut","url_meta":{"origin":2399,"position":2},"title":"Behemot and Bahamut","author":"Aharon N. Varady","date":"June 5, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The umbilical cord of my omphalos winds its way back in time to the blessings of my mother and father, but also inwards and outside-of-time, stretching into a womb land that is all myth and dream and imagination. With some effort I can follow my way back into this makom,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/09\/0074_baamout.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1498,"url":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/2013\/05\/all-streams-one-source","url_meta":{"origin":2399,"position":3},"title":"All Streams, One Source: Shesha and the Mystery of the Four-headed Shin","author":"Aharon N. Varady","date":"May 14, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"A Midrash of the Jews of Yemen dating from the 13th century provides the following explanation for the mystery of the four-branched shin. There is one \"head\" for each of the following facets: cogitation, imagination, memory, and estimation.[ref]paraphrasing Midrash haBeur, translated in Yemenite Midrash: Philosophical Commentaries on the Torah, edited\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Music"","block_context":{"text":"Music","link":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/category\/art\/music"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/8245225690_15c0588051_b_905.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/8245225690_15c0588051_b_905.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/8245225690_15c0588051_b_905.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/8245225690_15c0588051_b_905.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":366,"url":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/2008\/10\/the-eye-that-blinds","url_meta":{"origin":2399,"position":4},"title":"The Eye that Blinds","author":"Aharon N. Varady","date":"October 11, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Years ago on mog.com, I wrote about Claus Cordes' cover art for Klaus Schulz's 1983 album Audentity, the new wave punk slit glasses shown in the film Big Trouble in Little China (1986), and the specialized glasses worn by Geordi La Forge, the blind engineer played by LeVar Burton in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mythology"","block_context":{"text":"Mythology","link":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/category\/yiddishkeit\/mythology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/Redon.cyclops.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/Redon.cyclops.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/Redon.cyclops.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/Redon.cyclops.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":35,"url":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/2007\/05\/one-year-later","url_meta":{"origin":2399,"position":5},"title":"one year later","author":"Aharon N. Varady","date":"May 19, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"hello blog, welcome back me. One year later and I'm still in Baton Rouge and working with my planning team, now an order of magnitude larger. Plans out the door include the City of Port Allen Annexation Plan and the Comprehensive Coastal Protection and Restoration Master Plan for Louisiana. To\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Poetry"","block_context":{"text":"Poetry","link":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/category\/poetry"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2399"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2400,"href":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2399\/revisions\/2400"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aharon.varady.net\/omphalos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}