14. "'Oz Ve-Hadar Levushah"

^{Menahem, Moshe and Shim'on Anshin, Eliokum Gelbach, Moshe Vilenstock and David Raphael Ben Ami, Jerusalem, 19 July 1979; Recorded by Andre Hajdu and Yaakov Mazor.}

Bratslav Hasidim usually sing "Eshet hayil" ("A woman of valor," Prov. 31:10-31) on Friday night, before Qiddush. In recent years, some of them sing it on the first night of the New Year festival. The whole text is sung to a tune with a free rhythm (parlando rubato), like many other Hasidic melodies that have been adapted to "Eshet hayil." The Bratslav innovation is the repetition of verse 25 ("She is clothed with strength and splendor; she looks to the future cheerfully") with a dance niggun which they also sing while dancing on various occasions: weddings and other joyous events, festivals, and ordinary gatherings (hitva'aduyot).

Bratslav tradition attributes the recitative melody to R. Barukh of Medzhibozh, the uncle of R. Nahman of Bratslav, who used to sing it on the New Year festival to the words of the prayer "Attah nigleita" ("You revealed Yourself..."). The dance niggun was composed by Meir Yehudah (Leib) Blecher [= "Tinsmith"], an important disciple of R. Nathan of Nemirov (R. Nahman of Bratslav's disciple) and the composer of five niggunim in the Bratslav repertoire. Blecher, who was very poor, wrote it as a wedding present for his daughter instead of a dress, when she complained that she had nothing to wear. According to other sources, the recitative melody was sung to the words "Shalom 'aleikhem" and one version of the dance tune is attributed to the Besht (see, e.g., Mayerowitsch, nos. 1 and 2).