A beloved Yiddish song asking for just a little luck, enough to warm the heart in hard times. Russian version performed by Elechka.
Some songs ask for everything. This one asks for almost nothing: a little luck, a little happiness, a handful, just enough to make the load lighter. That modesty is exactly why it has been loved for a century. Everyone understands the wish for a small mercy in a hard time.
The word at its heart is mazl, which in Jewish tradition means luck and fate together, the same word in the blessing mazl tov. To ask for a bisele mazl is to ask, humbly, for fate to be just a little kind.
There is a special dignity in asking for little. A Bisele Mazl does not demand triumph or wealth; it asks for a handful of luck, and in doing so it says something true about how people actually survive: not on grand strokes of fortune but on small mercies, gratefully received.
Sung by Elechka in Russian, that small wish reaches millions of listeners who meet it in their own language, and find in it the same comfort it has given Jewish families for a hundred years.
"A song that asks only for a handful of luck understands people better than any anthem of triumph."
- Walter J. Kin, on the project's approachA Bisele Mazl is a traditional Yiddish song popularized on the Yiddish stage in the early twentieth century; the project’s arrangement is new. The Russian text is an original 2009 adaptation by Olga Anikina. The performers who carried the original, Bentsion Vitler, the Barry Sisters, Molly Picon, and others, are remembered here by name.
The project’s Russian poem by Olga Anikina is a new text. Its full lyrics are on the Russian page.
| Original | A Bisele Mazl, traditional Yiddish song (early 20th c.) |
| Russian poem | Olga Anikina (2009) |
| Performance | Elechka |
| Arrangement & production | Walter J. Kin (RIGLI) |
| Project | Jewish Songs for All / JewishSong.org |
The project’s version is in Russian, with Olga Anikina’s 2009 poem, performed by Elechka. The full Russian text is on the Russian page.
You may watch, share, and enjoy this recording freely. For performances, recordings, film and media placements, and printed arrangements of the project's version, licensing is handled simply and respectfully by Rigli Publishing.
The project’s arrangement and the Russian text were created for RIGLI: the poem by Olga Anikina, the production by Walter J. Kin, Member of the Dramatists Guild of America, published by Rigli Publishing as part of JewishSong.org. The traditional Yiddish song belongs to the whole Jewish people.