8th Day’s New Song Almost Sounds Like Spanish

By Shira Gold

“Una meser est a ki…” We can’t stop listening to it, keep playing it on repeat, but what does it mean?!

This new catchy hit song may initially sound Spanish to the ear, but as you delve into the concept you discover that it’s actually an old Yiddish saying! אן א מעסער עסט א קו – loosely translates to “a cow eats without a knife”. Aha. Mystery solved! Or is it?

There’s another Yiddish expression used in the song: פיינג אן פון אנפיינג, which means “start from the beginning”, also fun to say in rhyme, and can be mistaken for a different language as well. So – “a cow eats without a knife and lets start all over”?

Brothers Shmuel and Bentzi Marcus, the duo behind 8th Day, credit their father Rabbi Yitzchak Marcus – Chabad Rabbi and veteran educator, as the inspiration for these unique lyrical prose. They recall how, growing up, he used to cheerfully quote these words sometimes joking that he knew Spanish.

So perhaps this song is to help remind us to go back to that time (and place) when things were simpler and less influenced by social media and constant distractions?
“In this day and age when we might feel like we’re getting lost in the media frenzy that’s constantly around us”, says Shmuel Marcus 8th Day’s lead vocalist and lyricist, “sometimes just remembering to simply be a mentch is the best medicine”. Indeed, as the chorus lyrics say; “Una meser est a ki – a mentch you gotta be”.
“Sometimes a good hook is right there all along”, adds Bentzi Marcus, guitarist and vocalist for 8th Day. “Who knew we’d make a song based on those words, we used to have fun and laugh about them. It’s really cool to see how this song turned out meaningful with fans enjoying and connecting with it. That’s really the main thing”!

So wait – what’s the clear message and meaning of the song? To be honest I’m not entirely sure, however, by the time you finish hearing the song a few times it won’t matter. You’ll be dancing along with the rest of us… and that works in any language!

For more on this song and all things 8th Day please visit www.my8thday.com

Una Meser Lyrics:
Look into the mirror tell me how do you feel
Is that a smile or your heart needs to heal
Look into the mirror tell me how do you feel
With no filter what you see is real

A little bit of fun is fine
Heart and soul they must align
For everything there is a time
So let’s feing’un from the unfeing
A little bit of fun is fine
Heart and soul they must align
Together this one time
Let’s find the unfeing

Un a meser est a ki my father used to say to me
Un a meser est a ki a mentch you gotta be

Close up that old window let the gold disappear
Now it’s just a window to the big world out there
Look into the mirror tell me how do you feel
With no filter what you see is real

A little bit of fun is fine…

Un a meser est a ki…