“Hup Cossack” is a melody sung at Chassidic weddings and certain festive occasions. It begins slowly and builds increasing tempo as the song progresses. Here’s the story behind the melody – and a contemporary message.
Rabbi Arye Leib of Shpola was a beloved Chassidic Rebbe known affectionately as the “Shpola Zeide”. His claim to fame or specialty Mitzvah was to travel round to towns and villages and do whatever possible to redeem captives, Jews who had been imprisoned for falling behind in their rent or other similar reasons.
Once he came to a town where a woman was terribly distraught. Her husband leased a property from the local nobleman, and had fallen behind on his rent. He was thrown into the nobleman’s dungeon. To make matters much worse, this nobleman had a cruel and unusual custom. Each year on his birthday he would invite his friends to a grand old party, and as the main feature of entertainment, he would order up whomever was in prison at that time to put on a heavy bearskin costume, and enter into a dance competition with a trained Cossack dancer. The winner of the dance would be the victor and had the “rights” to chop off the loser’s head or inflict heavy lashes. Now this was a rigged dance. Everyone knew the well-fed, trained Cossack would easily win against an impoverished, imprisoned, hungry Jew who was further handicapped by the heavy, clumsy bear costume. Think of the Russian dances in the bar scene in Fiddler! They often sing this to a Kazatzke dance (squatting and kicking) which requires loads of nimble coordination. Bear costumes are the worst thing for that. But such was the nobleman’s custom, the notorious birthday was swiftly approaching, and this woman was terrified about her poor husband’s fate.
Somehow the Shpola Zeide found a way to switch places with the imprisoned Jew. Perhaps he bribed the guard, and as long as there’s an imprisoned Jew to dance the bear dance, what did it matter? Either way, the man went home to his wife and family, and the Shpola Zeide was taken from prison, dressed in the bear costume and brought out to dance against the Cossack to the cheers and guffaws of a drunken assemblage. But things did not turn out as expected. Despite the heavy, clumsy ill-fitted costume, the bear kept dancing in step, while the Cossack began faltering. The laughter turned to gasps as the Cossack couldn’t keep up. Soon the arrogant Cossack was pleading for his life. The Shpola Zeide graciously pardoned him, providing he paid up the man’s debts and paid up a year’s lease.
Hup Cossack was the melody played for that bear-dance, and it has since been transformed into a Chassidic melody.
The basic message of the story is the Shpola Zeide’s tremendous personal sacrifice for a fellow Jew. He literally put his life on the line for someone else.
Here’s another message: We all wear bear costumes. Think of those things in life which weigh us down, limit and inhibit us, make us clumsy and awkward. Everyone has their bear costume, to one degree or another, in one area of life or another. How to deal with it? Dance, dance! Outdance the Cossack! Don’t let the bear costume keep us down and hold us back! To survive we must thrive, joyously and energetically, with vitality and dynamic warmth.
Hear the Hop Cossack melody played here by Avraham Fried: http://www.chabad.org/multimedia/media_cdo/aid/254254/jewish/Hupp-Cossack.htm
and using this link to hear Hup Cossack sung by the original Chabad Nichoach series: http://www.chabad.org/multimedia/media_cdo/aid/140756/jewish/Hopp-Cossack.htm