Chasing Humpty
In this happiest month of Adar, we look back in history at all the joyous events that have taken place in Adars past. Can you believe that it has been 18 years (and 24 Adars) since Digital Underground released their album Sex Packets, on 29 Adar 5750?
On Thursday night at a “Def Adar Jam” in southern Jerusalem, I performed a folk version of “The Humpty Dance” on acoustic guitar in honor of this milestone. Yes, there are other versions floating around the Internet, but if I may say so, my rendition is better. (And no, my version isn’t on YouTube and never will be. By day, I teach high school, and I don’t need my students googling me and hearing me sing about how I’m still getting in the girls’ pants.)
Here’s the thing though. It’s not really my version. I first heard it at Hillel Leaders Assembly in 1999.
In Megillat Esther, an Adar classic, after Mordechai uncovers the plot to assassinate the king, Esther passes this information on to Achashverosh in Mordechai’s name (Esther 2:22). The rabbis of the Talmud derive from this that anyone who says a thing in the name of the one who said it brings redemption to the world (Megillah 15a). Wait, no. Rabbi Eliezer taught it in the name of Rabbi Hanina. That’s better.
So I’d like to give proper credit to the person from whom I learned this acoustic folk version of the Humpty Dance, and thereby bring redemption to the world. There’s only one problem. I never got his name. I’ve been chasing Humpty ever since.
Then I realized that there’s really no good reason that this mystery hasn’t been solved yet. The Jewish world just isn’t that big, especially the subset of it who were Hillel student leaders in 1999 and play guitar. This person shouldn’t be more than a couple degrees of separation away from me. But he (yes, I’m pretty sure about the gender) has remained at large for 8.5 years. So I’m bringing in the big guns and asking the blogosphere. If you played the acoustic Humpty Dance at Hillel Leaders Assembly in 1999, please identify yourself so that the world can be redeemed. And if it wasn’t you, but you have a hunch of who it might be, please forward this post to them, so that together we may usher in an era of peace and humptiness forever.
Thanks in advance!
If I dig in my closet, maybe I’ll find that list of all participants of the retreat that they gave us. Too bad the emails will probably be out of date.