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Baruch Levine:A Child’s Prayer Lyrics

A Child’s Prayer
This song is by Baruch Levine and appears on the album Touched By A Niggun (2009).

In a cold and dreary place, a child’s angelic face –
Machines all so big and so frightening.
The tests will return – anxiety, concern –
Min ha’meitzar karasi kah.

A prognosis so sad, the dreams which they all had –
They try not to cry, their hearts broken.
With fear in his eyes, his parents at his side –
Anani ba’merchav kah.

In a world gone insane through suffering and pain,
As children, we cry out to Heaven –
Save us from the fright, Father hold us tight –
For us and our fellow brethren.

Throughout all the years, the sadness and tears –
When will it stop, will it ever?
We beg you, Tatte please, mach shoin far unz zees
For us, now and forever
And forever.

Of treatments he is told, so terrifying to behold –
Accepting his fate, yet still believing.
A boy’s voice is heard, how treasured every word –
Oy Hashem shim’ah b’koli.

He has one small request, perhaps his last bequest –
To appear like a Yid, with payos swinging.
He looks to the sky, awaiting His reply –
Mei’ayin yavo ezri.

An illness takes its toll on a pure young precious soul
But he sees Hashem’s love in the mirror.
Though he’s lost all his hair, his payos are still there-
Hashem li v’lo irah.

In a world gone insane through suffering and pain,
As children, we cry out to Heaven –
Save us from the fright, Father hold us tight –
For us and our fellow brethren.

Throughout all the years, the sadness and tears –
When will it stop, will it ever?
We beg you, Tatte please, mach shoin far unz zees
For us, now and forever
And forever.

simcha, seeing you haven’t received a full answer to your original q, i would add that it has been conjectured that the current black and white look was adapted from the chassidim with whom the litvaks came into contact with basically for the first time after the war in the u.s. It’s possible that they borrowed the concept of a “Jewish uniform” to seperate from the goyim which until then was a purely chassidish hashkafa. The medrash about lo shinu es livusham apparently had a different meaning for the centuries of litvishe and (some) sfardishe communities that dressed essentially like their neighbors. I was told that R Aharon Kotler did not create this look but did not disapprove bec of the possibility that it was a good idea (shev v’al ta’aseh adif)